


Crossing Paths

by Roseflower23



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Action/Adventure, F/M, Friendship, Kissing, Mutants, Romance, Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-30
Updated: 2017-03-25
Packaged: 2018-04-06 23:50:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 32
Words: 201,949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4241370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Roseflower23/pseuds/Roseflower23
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Norah was 20 years old when SHIELD took her in and offered to help with her powers, and when Tony Stark took her in as the daughter he never knew he wanted. A few years later The Avengers called her in to help with Hydra and the Sokovia situation which resulted in Norah meeting a silver haired Sokovian whose interest was piqued during their first meeting. Pietro/OC</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Prologue

Not once did Norah ever imagine that her life would turn out like this. When Norah was younger and still had her childlike innocence she wanted to be a singer or an actress, she wanted to be on stage in some sort of fashion and be the center of attention in a manner of speaking. She never thought that she would end up being a Mutant with extraordinary abilities, that she would end up running away from home at fifteen because of how her family viewed her abilities, Norah never thought that she would join a Mutant school and graduate early with honors, she never thought that she would end up being found by a government agency when she accidentally leveled a housing development and that they would offer her help, she never thought that she would basically become like a daughter to the Tony Stark of Stark Industries AKA Iron Man and that she would see him as a father figure and Norah didn’t think that she would end up finding a family that would accept her wholeheartedly – powers and all.

Norah certainly didn’t image that she would be surrounded by murder crazy robots that were doing their damndest to kill her, and those she thought of as family. She also never thought that she would end up finding Pietro who drew her in like a moth to a flame. Sokovia was a land of strife, of anger, of pain and suffering….it was the land where Norah found something more. She found Pietro. 

“Norah, you must live for me, yes.” Pietro said from where he was kneeling on the ground next to Norah who was lying on the cement ground and bleeding from the gunshot wounds she had received because she decided to save Pietro, Clint and a young boy Clint was bringing to be transported from the floating city. “You cannot die.”

At that Norah gave a pained laugh, “I’ll…I’ll try my best.” She said as she hissed in pain, she could feel where all three of the bullets that hit her were in her body and god did they hurt like a bitch but it was worth it in the end; she saved Pietro, Clint and the kid. “I’m not really in the mood to die.”

Pietro looked at the blonde haired woman who was bleeding on the roads of Sokovia, a woman who had piqued his interest the moment she chased after him what could have only been a week ago. The most important in his life has always been Wanda, she was his twin and the only other person’s safety that he thought about and if she asked it of him he would kill for her. It has always been just the two of them since their parents were killed but Norah changed everything for him; she was intense, stubborn and fiercely protective and was not afraid of taking anyone head on be it Pietro himself, Wanda or even Ultron. She would do it in a heartbeat. He cared for Norah deeply already even though they have not known each other long, and Pietro was thankful for that first meeting….and when she hit him. Norah was something else, that was for sure.

“Pietro.” Clint said softly as he looked at where Pietro was knelt down besides Norah, and then looked at Norah who was in serious trouble if her wounds didn’t get tended to soon. “We need to go, we need to get her to the Helicarrier.”

“Go,” Pietro said and waved Clint to go ahead of him. “I will be moments.” He said as he turned back to Norah with a gentle smile. “Moj mali bik.” He said as he grabbed her hand which had blood on it from her pressing her hand on one of her wounds. “You will live for me, you made promise to me.” He said as he shifted and slid one arm under her knees and another around her back and stood up carefully and much slower than he would have preferred to go but he was not about to take any chances when it came to Norah’s health and safety.

Norah slung an arm around Pietro’s neck, her fingers weakly touching his silver/blonde colored hair and gave a small grin. “I did, didn’t I?” she said as her pain filled brown eyes looked up into his intense blue colored ones. “I promised to be in the sort of situation where less clothing would be involved.” 

“Yes, you promised that to me.” Pietro said as he steadied her in his arms. “I do not like promises being broken.” He said to her with a half-hearted grin, he hoped to all the gods that existed that Norah would live and would not die in the fifteen minutes that it would take to get to the Helicarrier. 

“I’ll do my best.” Norah said softly, blinking her eyes rapidly. “I’m so tired Pietro.” She said to him weakly. 

Hearing that Pietro’s eyes widened, he may not know much when it came to the medical field but he did know enough that someone should not fall asleep after they were injured, especially with how seriously Norah seemed to be injured. Without a second thought in mind Pietro sped quickly to the ships that were transporting them to the Helicarrier and did all that he could to keep Norah’s eyes open; he would not lose Norah after only just finding her.


	2. Chapter 2

Being taken in by Tony Stark when Norah had been twenty was an odd experience; she read the newspapers, watched TV and stumbled upon articles about him on the internet and knew that he was a tad bit eccentric, a downright asshole at times, egocentric even and well, a mad genius but living with him and being his pseudo daughter was….different.

It was vastly different from what she had experienced from her own family – before she had decided to run away – Norah’s actual father was the sort of person who shouldn’t have ever been a father to start with, all he cared about was drinking his life and liver away and doing drugs and selling drugs to his heart’s content. A horrible example of a father. And yeah, no sane person would have probably ever imagined trusting Tony Stark with a child, but he has been the best example of a father that Norah has ever had in her life. He wasn’t the sort of father that Norah had dreamed up when she was five years old and wishing that she had a different father, but Tony was better than anything her imagination could have ever come up with. Tony took her in when SHIELD found her in Romania after she had run off from the home she made in Sweden, she…well Norah kinda sort of accidentally leveled a housing development in the suburbs of Stockholm.

Stockholm, Sweden: Norah age twenty

It was late at night and Norah had just gotten off work from the restaurant that she was a hostess at; it was a long and tiring day with staff who decided to not show up to their shift and having to deal with impatient patrons who could not comprehend what it meant when Norah told them they were a bit understaffed so it would take a bit longer to be seated than usual. 

“Norah! Norah! Vänta på mig, jag vill tala med dig.” The familiar voice of Bjorn, a tall lanky dark haired man who was around twenty-five years old or so, a man who Norah had no interest in whatsoever yet he didn’t seem to get the hint.

Giving a deep sigh Norah kept walking and waited for Bjorn to catch up to her, he was tall he would be able to do so with just a few strides. God how she would love to get out of there right now, technically she could with one of her powers but what’s the point, the guy would still be relentless in asking her out.

“Hej Bjorn.” Norah replied in Swedish. “What do you need?” she asked shortly in English.

Bjorn grinned widely at her, “I stopped by to see you at work but you were not there, they said that you had left but minutes ago so I thought I would catch up with you.” He told her proudly, talking as if he had just discovered the cure to cancer.

Hearing that he had stopped to see her at work, again, Norah shook her head and wondered what she had done to deserve this. What she did to anger any and all gods that made them think sending this guy to come and bother her all of the time was a fitting punishment. All Norah wanted to do right now was go home, take a shower, maybe have some tea and ice cream while watching some Swedish TV show but no, instead she was stuck walking home late at night while Bjorn followed her like a lost puppy dog. Not exactly how she wanted to spend her night walking home. 

“So, Norah.” Bjorn began and Norah was groaning internally already knowing what he was going to say to her. “I was wondering if you…if you would be interested on going on a date with me?” he asked nervously, his grey eyes peering down at her. “I know this great place called Kajsas Fisk. All items on the menu is fish related, well almost everything.” He said to her. 

Slowly Norah turned her head to look at where he was walking beside her and cocked her brow and gave him an odd look, “Bjorn if you knew me at all, which I will admit you have been trying to do desperately for the last three months, you would know that I hate almost everything fish related. I barely like fish sticks, like two kinds of sushi and that is the limit of what I am willing to eat that is fish related.” She pointed out to him and shook her head, trying to do everything to get him to stop following her and to stop him from asking her out almost every damn week, it was getting tiring. 

“Oh.” Bjorn said a bit disheartened. “How about a nice Italian place, I know this pla-“

Before Bjorn was able to say anything more than that Norah suddenly stopped and poked him in the chest, hard. “Bjorn, really?” she questioned him with her hands on her hips giving him a fierce look for continually asking her out. “I get that you like me, I really do but are you getting the hint that I am not, in any way or form, interested in you?” she questioned him.

At that Bjorn took a step back and looked at his feet, a small blush appearing on his face. “Well yeah, I know.” He said quietly, a bit dismayed. “I just thought that if I kept asking and showing up at your work and accidentally walking home with you that you would give in and go out with me.” He admitted to her.

Norah looked at him and almost squinted one of her eye’s at him trying to understand the logic that he found in that idea, which, Norah could not find any and instead just gave him a ‘wtf’ look. It was obvious to anyone that was friends with Norah that Bjorn was obsessed with her and for the life of her Norah could not figure it out; she had big wild blonde colored curly hair that tended to have a mind of its own, she was pale, she was a tad bit too sarcastic at times and at times made jokes at inappropriate times and well the whole Mutant thing tended to be a turn off for people. For whatever reason he liked her and Norah was getting downright annoyed and sick of it. 

“It’s not Bjorn.” Norah said to him simply, and doing her best to not be snarky to him at the moment. “I will not go out with you. I’m not interested in you and I am more invested in University at the moment. And even when I am, I still won’t be interested.” She told him with a shake of her head, a serious look on her face.

Though, for some reason Bjorn decided to be stubborn about this and shook his head at what Norah was saying to him. “No, I don’t believe that. I know school is important to you but I am willing to wait. I will wait until I can get my chance with you.”

“Oh for fucks sake!” Norah yelled in frustration, flinging her arms out besides her.

Before she or Bjorn could say anything though there were the sounds of crashing and buildings falling to the ground – lots of buildings falling in fact. Slowly turning her head Norah looked at the small housing development that was being built and grimaced a bit and saw the destruction that she and her power just did to it, what once had been at least ten or so homes now was nothing but rubble made of wood, electrical wiring, stone, plaster and whatever else homes were made out of. It was much more destructive than the first time Norah had lost her temper and did something eerily similar, only last time it had been the shed in the backyard of her home in Minnesota.  
“Vad ... vad hände?” Bjorn just whispered to himself after he saw the destruction of the houses and then turned to look at Norah whose arms were still outstretched towards where the housing development once had been. “You…you, what are you? What did you just do?” he questioned her with fear in his eyes at what she did.

Norah gave a heavy sigh when she saw the fear of Bjorn’s face and knew within a few minutes he would be able to figure out who she was and it would be all her fault. Even though Norah had trained so hard and busted her ass while living at Xavier’s Institute to have control over this power of her’s it seemed that she still wasn’t perfect but then again, no one would be able to get complete control over their powers in only a few short years. 

But Norah wouldn’t go back to Xavier’s, she appreciated what the school did for her and that she was able to find a safe place to call home with people who accepted her and her powers, but she couldn’t go back. Xavier’s taught her the basis for controlling her powers but at the same time it felt stifling, it felt as if they were not truly teaching her how to properly control her powers. Norah could feel her powers within her body, she felt them coursing through her veins and knew that the way she was being taught to control them was not what she needed and that she needed a different technique so to say. The training there did help give her a basis of how to control them so that her powers would not control her and so that no matter how angry she got that her powers wouldn’t go off the handle and blow things up when she did not mean to, but their training was wrong for how Norah understood her powers. It felt as if they were trying to squish her massive powers into a tiny little box that was only unlocked when she needed to use them, it was not how Norah wanted to be taught.  
“Y..you…you’re one of them. You’re a Mutant.” Bjorn said, whispering the last part as if he was a part of some conspiracy theory or something of the like. 

Norah pursed her lips and nodded her head, there’s really no denying after what happened to those houses, it was simply too destructive. “Yes. I am a Mutant.” She answered simply, quietly as if she feared that he would suddenly go running through the streets shouting that she was a Mutant. 

“I’ve been obsessed over a Mutant freak!” He screamed in horror and in disgust at this new revelation. “You, you’re one of the dangerous ones that they’ve always warned us about on the news. The ones that could kill us without a second thought and without even lifting your finger.” He said in fright and backed himself up against a bright building that had seemed to miraculously escape the damage of Norah’s power. 

Attempting to soothe the freaked out Bjorn – something she’d rather not do after him calling her a freak – Norah stepped towards him but he pushed stumbled a few feet away trying to put as much space between them as he could. “N..No. Don’t come near me. I’m going to tell everyone what I just saw; the News, the papers, the internet. Everyone. You need to be locked up.” He said loudly.

Hearing that Norah narrowed her eyes at what Bjorn said, she really hated this whole anti-Mutant thing that so many people were into even though Mutants were humans too just with extra umph in their DNA. The moment Norah stepped towards Bjorn the man instead panicked and ran off before she had the chance to even utter one word. 

“Shit, Shit, Shit.” Norah said to herself and quickly glanced at the rubble of the houses and then ran off down the street towards her apartment that she shared with her friend Kjerstin. 

Norah knew she couldn’t stay in Stockholm anymore or Sweden either, she needed to get out before Bjorn had the chance to go to the media like he threatened to do, she refused to let herself be targeted by people who couldn’t understand or tolerate Mutants.  
Norah did quite a bit of travelling after she had fled Sweden after the whole turning a bunch of up and coming houses to nothing but rubble; first Norah got the first flight out of Sweden and ended up in Berlin, Germany and she stayed there for a day so that she could recover from staying up all night panicking and freaking out about Bjorn going to the News and showing them the destruction that Norah did, but once she had at least a day’s worth of sleep she headed off again and got a ticket for a nine hour train ride to Slovakia and then when she finally arrived there she went and got a ticket to Bucharest, Romania where she ended up getting a room so that she could recover from travelling for however many days and decide what to do, and personally Norah didn’t have a clue what to do when she arrived in Romania. Should she just keep travelling and settle down in some small and unknown village in Romania or should she head back to the States, there were really so many options and she didn’t know what to do. 

It was in her room in Bucharest, Romania that another option was offered to her by none other than Nick Fury.

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~ Norah: Age 20: Bucharest, Romania~_~_~_~_~_~_

Bucharest was a beautiful city in Romania, if Norah had a car or she would go and drive through the countryside and just explore this country that was ten times smaller than the United States where she was from. These places were so in tune with their heritage, they appreciated it, loved it and lived life to the fullest and honored their ancestors the best they could and Norah found that beautiful.  
What bothered Norah though was the fact that she was interrupted from enjoying this beautiful city and all it had to offer – like the Flea Market and getting breakfast – by two people knocking on her door and basically forcing their way into her shabby and quite dated looking hotel room. At first Norah thought they were there to rob her which really wouldn’t have gotten them much of anywhere since she didn’t keep her money on her and hid her debit cards and travelers checks so really, they were quite screwed if they wanted any money from her. Then her mind went to Bjorn and him threatening to tell the media about her being a Mutant but she quickly abolished that thought, she researched a bit after she left Sweden and knew Bjorn hadn’t told anyone…yet. 

The one who Norah assumed was the leader since he took the only chair in the room was a dark skinned man who was decked out in all black and either looked like something from a Goth fashion magazine or a BDSM magazine and Norah couldn’t really decide which was more likely, he had a great poker face on him at the moment and an eye patch to booth. The other one who had barged their way into her room was a stocky looking man with dirty blonde hair and was leaning against the far wall that was nearest to the window, he gave off the presence that he had military training and wasn’t afraid to use it to his benefit. 

“So, Patchy,” Norah said trying to keep the frightened tone out of her voice, she didn’t know what these people wanted or why they were in her room but she’d rather not reveal her power until she knew what they wanted. “Who the fuck are you and what are you doing in my room?” she questioned as she narrowed her eyes at the man and could have sworn that she heard the blonde man snicker a bit.  
Patchy, as she dibbed him, narrowed his one dark colored eye at her when she called him that and thinned is lips in irritation at her. “I’m Nick Fury and this here is Clint Barton.” He said introducing the two of them. 

Norah looked between Patchy – she wasn’t going to call him Fury, especially when he was wearing that eyepatch – and Clint and then raised her brow. Norah was a bit terrified, there was no doubting that she was afraid they were Anti-Mutant people who had figured out who she was and now wanted to kill her or kidnap her to be experimented on or something (she may have read some of Xavier’s files and read them when she definitely wasn’t supposed to). What person wouldn’t be frightened at the moment.

Taking a deep breath Norah put on her brave face and looked from Patchy to Clint and then gave a half grin, “That’s nice, really great actually. Do you want a cookie for being able to say that all on your own or should I ask your mom first?” she questioned sarcastically as she plopped down on the bed and bounced a bit from the force. 

Norah couldn’t help but smile to herself when she saw that she angered Patchy and the speech that he probably had prepared to tell her, she assumed he had a speech since he came all the way to Romania and forced himself into her room. His jaw was tensed and his fists were clenched tightly around the arm of the shabby looking chair and sent her a dark look that would normally frighten people who were twice as old as her yet Norah just raised a brow at him and crossed her arms under her chest. Patchy may have the whole leather and eyepatch thing going on but Logan was always ornery and grr, and he had the claws to go with his grouchiness and was a bit more terrifying than Patchy was. 

“I don’t have the fucking time for your sarcasm Eleanorah Rosabelle Sjoholm,” Fury stated harshly as he looked into her eyes and then gave a slightly, barely noticeable smirk in her direction. “Or should I call you by your birth name, Eleanorah Rosabelle Sullivan?” he questioned as he looked at her knowingly. 

Hearing her actual birth name for the first time in quite a few years Norah narrowed her eyes at the man and leaned forwards off of the bed in a threatening manner, “Don’t call me that!” she yelled at him and pursed her lips together, trying to forget the memories that her former name brought to the forefront of her mind. “I am not Norah Sullivan anymore; I haven’t been her since I ran away from home.” She pointed out to him angrily. 

Sullivan had been her last name when she ran away. Sullivan had been her last name when she was attacked in St. Louis after she ran away. Sullivan was the name she got from a father who couldn’t even bother to get to know his kids. Sullivan was not who Norah was anymore, Sullivan was a girl who once had a family who loved and cared for her no matter what. Sullivan wasn’t the girl who had graduated early from her Mutant school and wasn’t the girl who made a home for herself in Sweden. 

“Don’t call me that.” Norah whispered as she looked into Patchy’s eyes seriously, anger simmering beneath. 

Patchy nodded at her in understanding and decided to ignore the anger that had been directed at him, he knew what the girl could do and knew that if she really wanted to she could blow them out of the hotel room and make an escape for herself before either he or Clint had the time to recover. But she was staying put for the moment. Fury was thankful for that small mercy.

“Ms. Sjoholm,” Patchy said as to Norah in a serious tone of voice as he looked at her with his one good eye. “I’m giving you the benefit of a doubt in assuming that you realize that I am not here for a social call.” He stated simply. 

At that Norah gave a very unladylike snort, “I would hope that you weren’t here for socializing, you have to know the person in the first place and besides,” she said with a wide smirk on her face. “You are so not my type, way too much leather going on for my likes and it makes you look like a weird sort of conservative BDSM groupie. Not my thing.” She said with a shrug and had to hold in a laugh when she saw his fists clench yet again in what was more than likely frustration for Norah’s sarcastically attitude and the fact that she poked put at his getup, from the corner of her eye she could see Clint doing his best to not laugh at what she said. 

For a moment Fury wondered quite seriously if Tony Stark did indeed have a kid that he didn’t know about because this girl was starting to show the same sort of sense of humor that Stark had and hoped to god she wasn’t narcissistic and self-centered like the billionaire was. The world would definitely end with two Starks.

“Ms. Sjoholm, drop the attitude.” Patchy ordered sternly, as if talking to a misbehaving five year old child and wondered how she was able to get on his nerves so easily. “Look, I know what happened in Stockholm…or rather more specifically I know what you did. You levelled a housing development without moving anything but your hands.” He stated and then locked eyes with Norah. 

Hearing that was exactly why Patchy and Clint were there, that they were in her hotel room because of her abilities Norah suddenly panicked and thought that they truly were going to kidnap her and do experiments on her and that was something Norah was definitely not okay with. She did not want to become a science experiment for some psychopath’s that had a thing for leather. Scrambling up and off of the bed, Norah pushed herself against the wall that was farthest away from both Patchy and Clint and looked at them hatefully. 

“I won’t go with you, I won’t!” Norah said vehemently, shaking her head making her blonde curls go flying around her face. “I didn’t mean to do that, I…I really didn’t. My powers are linked with my emotions and sometimes, very rarely, they react. Just, I promise you, please don’t take me away. Don’t experiment on me.” She said her anger falling away quite quickly to fear, she meant to stay strong and fierce and act as if she could take on anything but her fear of being experimented on won out – she really shouldn’t have looked at those files of Xavier’s. “I’ve read about the experiments that people like you do, you end up killing the patients…the Mutants like me die because you want to understand how our powers work. I won’t let myself get killed because of your curiosity. I’ll kill you all first.” She said fiercely as she dug her nails into the soft skin of her hand. “I may be a Mutant but not all of us are bad, not all of us hate humans and want them to die. I just want to live, please.” She finished lamely and feeling way too much like the thirteen year old version of herself, tears forming and all. 

“Whoa, whoa. Slow down.” Clint said raising his hands up as if it would help calm Norah down from whatever she’s convinced herself of why they were there. “No one said anything about locking you up or experimenting on you. Okay.” He said to her gently as he looked into her eyes sincerely, trying to show that he and Fury didn’t mean her any harm and wouldn’t be trying to kidnap her or letting people experiment on her simply because she was a Mutant. 

Clamping her mouth shut from running off and begging them to not hurt or experiment on her, Norah looked at both men carefully and just studied them for a moment. Like she had thought earlier they both look as if they were ready to fight and assumed that they both had backgrounds in the military. There were a few teachers at Xavier’s who had been ex-Military; Logan and some other teacher she didn’t really pay much attention to since he taught math. Norah could hear how sincere Clint seemed to be but that could just be a façade to lure her into a false sense of security, she didn’t exactly run into the most savory of people when she had run away at fifteen. 

“How do I know you’re telling the truth?” Norah questioned suspiciously, eyes watching the two’s every move. 

At that Clint gave a sigh, he knew this was going to be hard to convince her that they did not mean her any harm. “Look, we’re not going to experiment on you or let anyone do that to you, okay?” he said to her softly, he was used to interacting with younger kids but teenagers/young adults were a bit more complicating. “Eleanorah, we want to help you.” 

Norah gave him an unbelieving look and crossed her arms but still stayed against the wall, as if she was waiting for them to attack her. “Yeah? I’m sure the anti-Mutant groups only wanted to ‘help’ us too. They really wanted to help us. They wanted to help us die, they wanted to help us get exterminated.” She replied to him dryly, remembering seeing protests held by Anti-Mutant groups, had seen news coverages and read articles online.

“What reason do we have to hurt you?” Clint questioned her.

“Did you forget the part where you barged your way into my room?” Norah reminded him and gestured towards the door of the room which made Clint roll his eyes at her.

Albeit, forcing themselves into a young girl’s hotel room was probably the wrong way to go about things but they were on a schedule and needed to get out of Romania within an hour or two, Romanoff needed help in South America. What’s done is done. 

“We’re from SHIELD, we-“ Patchy began but was interrupted by the girl.

Norah looked at Patchy with questioning eyes, “What’s SHIELD?”

It was Clint that answered her curious question, “Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division.”  
Hearing the name Norah blinked a few times trying to comprehend the name and then snorted, “Dude, you guys have a ridiculously long name. You need to shorten that shit up a bit.” She replied and shook her head at how ridiculous the name of it was, at least the acronym for it was a bit better. 

“As I had been saying,” Patchy said as he looked at Norah pointedly, basically demanding her with his eyes to not interrupt him until he finished, though he sincerely that would happen. “We’re a government agency which basically looks into the weird and unusual sort of situations, we get rid of terrorist acts around the world and make the world….safe.” he started to explain as he looked at Norah the whole time making sure that everything he said was getting across to the stubborn girl. “We like to have people like you, Mutants, on our side. On the good side. Some Mutants who come into their powers, ones who have destructive powers like yours, don’t usually try to not hurt people with it. They use their power for their own means, they use it to hurt and threaten people so that they can get what they want. They want to destroy everything and anything around them just because it floats their damn boat.” He said with a snarl on his face at what so many people were capable of. “Our agency has tried to find these people, to both contain and handle the situation or offer them help if it is in the card.”

“Doesn’t happen too often though,” Clint added off hand as he looked down and out of the window in her room. 

Norah looked away from Patchy for a few moments to take in what he just told her, that apparently there is a secret government agency that she and probably a good majority of the people of the United States did not know about and this agency works with terrorism, weird supernatural kind of stuff and have offered to help other Mutants with their powers but most apparently refuse. Norah knew a few Mutants who’ve deflected from Xavier and his school and either go off on their own or join another group and those one’s weren’t always the best influence. 

“How do I know that you aren’t just going to use me for a weapon?” Norah questioned in concern, she knew that once people realized that she was able to level a housing development that they would wonder what other sort of destruction she would be able to do. “I’m not stupid, I know what sort of things the wrong sort of people would do with my power.” She stated matter of a factly and looked at both Patchy and Clint expectantly, waiting for them to attempt to convince her otherwise. 

Fury shook his head at the girl, she may be young but she definitely wasn’t stupid by any means. “Look, Eleanorah. I’m not here to ask you to join SHIELD, hell I don’t want you to work for SHIELD you’re stubborn, sarcastic and have no control over your power.” He said to her honestly, with training and maybe her learning to keep her comments to herself he would admit that she’d be quite the agent, but he didn’t see that coming to fruition in the foreseeable future. “I’m here to offer you a chance like we’ve done with other Mutants who have powers as strong as yours are. I want you to come back with us to the States to get help and training on how to control your power, to hone it and so that no matter how many girlie temper tantrums you may throw that you’ll still have complete control over your power.” 

When Patchy said girly temper tantrums Norah couldn’t help but glower a bit but she had to admit, being trained how to control her powers was a definite plus to going with these guys even if she already did have a bit of training but she assumed SHIELD would be more well equipped and have a different way going about things than Xavier’s did. “And how exactly are you planning on helping me with my power?” she questioned genuinely curious about how they would do that. 

“We know people.” Clint answered vaguely to which Norah just gave a roll of her eyes and shook her head. 

“Anyways,” Patchy said gaining both Norah and Clint’s attention. “Like I said I do not want you to join SHIELD, I am not bringing you in to join SHIELD but I’m bringing you in so you can control the power that you already have. And when the world eventually does get attacked by a three headed dragon or some weird shit like that,” Patchy said which made Norah snort in amusement at his wild imagination and how blasé he said that. “We will have someone with power to help in case, though I don’t want you to work with our agency I am not stupid enough to think that someday in the future that there will be a time when we will need our help. So I want you to train how to control your power, how to fight if you need it because the world is full of weird shit nowadays that most people ignore and try to not think about. People are stupid, plain and simple and don’t like to think about things that they can’t explain. Like Mutants.” He ended and looked at Norah and waited to see what her response would be to him asking…offering her an opportunity to train and gain full control over her powers without having to worry about harming anyone. 

Norah stood there in a relaxed position now that she knew for surely that neither Patchy or Clint were going to try and attack her and stick her with some drug that will make her pass out so that they could take her to scientist to experiment on or whatever, but they were a part of the government and a majority of the government doesn’t like Mutants – bastard that they are. But, no matter how grouchy and intense Patchy seemed Norah felt as if she could believe every word he was saying to her, he seemed to be the type to say it like it is no matter if it is a lower level agent or one of his superiors. 

Taking a step forward Norah suddenly disappeared from both Patchy and Clint’s sight and within a blink of an eye she reappeared directly behind Patchy making both of the men jump in surprise, apparently they didn’t know about all of her powers just about the one that was the most dangerous. 

Leaning down towards Patchy’s ear Norah looked him in his one good eye with a dead serious expression on her face, “If you betray me, if you do something that makes me lose the barely there trust that I have in you right now I will not hesitate to blow you and all of SHIELD up in revenge. She said in a fiercely vicious tone of voice that for one moment made Fury feel fear at what this young girl could do with her power if she had proper training.  
~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~~_~_~_~_

And that was how Norah ended up being taken in by SHIELD, and ultimately finding a father figure in Tony Stark. It may have been SHIELD who convinced Norah to leave Europe and come with them back to the States and to New York so that they could help her control her power but it was Tony Stark who took her under his wing and gave her a place to stay that wasn’t owned by SHIELD and filled with their agents who Norah felt as if they were watching her at all times. Though Tony could be a downright asshole at times he did care and have a heart and would do anything for those who he loved but the thing was there were only two people who could bring that side of him out; Pepper and Norah. 

“Norah!” Tony called annoyingly from down the hall. “Norah! Norah! Norah!”

Norah gave a heavy sigh and looked up as Tony walked into the library where she had been reading, “Yes dad?” she said sarcastically and slightly annoyed at being interrupted from reading her book, she liked to immerse herself in the books and feel as if she is there experiencing everything that the characters experienced. “What do you want Tony? I’m busy.” 

At that Tony rolled his eyes and plopped himself besides Norah and took the book she was reading right out of her hands and skimmed over the back of the book before tossing it over his shoulder, “Really? The Hobbit?” he questioned shaking his head at her. “I supposed you are short enough to be one.”

Norah glared at him, “Surprised you know what a Hobbit is actually, I guess your brains aren’t all wasted on science.” She told him with a smirk on her face. “I might just die from shock that you even know or have heard of Tolkien’s books.”

Tony pushed her playfully in the shoulder, “Whatever, come on stop wasting your time being boring.” He said as he stood up and tried to pull Norah up but she just wiggled her arm out of his reach.

“No. I told you I’m busy.” Norah said to him stubbornly and stretched herself out on the couch, a very nice plush couch that she was sure Tony picked at random but was probably at least a thousand or more dollars. 

“With what?” Tony questioned as he pulled Norah up from her laid out position and up onto her feet. “Are you going to invite all your girlie friends over and have a sleep over, play dress up and fight over who gets the best Barbie?” 

Norah gave Tony a bland look for that comment and hoped that Tony really didn’t think that she played with Barbie’s still but then again, it’s Tony, she wouldn’t put it past him really. 

“Come on,” Tony said grasping her lightly by the arm and pulled her down the hallway with him. “You’re going to help me in the lab. I need someone to bounce idea’s off of.” He explained as to why he was kidnapping her and bringing her to his weird and twisted version of a dungeon. 

“And you think I’m the best person to bounce ideas off of, really” Norah said to him and raised a brow. 

Tony shrugged, “Yup.”

At that Norah groaned, she and math like things such as engineering did not get along and she didn’t take the sort of science that Tony did when he was building things. He would talk about algorithms, power potions, wiring and other stuff that will go over her head. 

“JARVIS!” Norah yelled into the house. “Jarvis make him stop. Lock the doors or something.” She stated almost in a begging way. 

“I am sorry Ms. Sjoholm but I am unable to do that, it is not in my protocols to block Mr. Stark from anywhere in the building. My apologies.” The voice of Jarvis said. 

Norah glowered at that, “I hate you Jarvis.” She said halfheartedly. 

“I am sorry to hear that.” Jarvis replied.

Tony gave a genuine giggle and pulled her into his lab unceremoniously.

Translations: 

Norah! Norah! Vänta på mig, jag vill tala med dig : Norah! Norah! Wait for me, I wish to speak with you.  
Hej Bjorn : hi Bjorn

Vad ... vad hände : what....what just happened


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I was in a car accident yesterday but I am slowly uploading my stuff up here so you all can enjoy reading it!

It’s been almost three years since Norah left Romania and headed on back to America with Patchy and Clint, at that point she hadn’t been back to the States since she was seventeen years old and no matter how much Norah loved travelling and living in Europe it was nice to be back in the homeland so to say. Patchy came through on his promise and had a few SHIELD agents work with Norah and helping her control her powers so that she could access and use them without even having the need to think and concentrate on using them. As if her power of blowing things up, or as one of her trainers had called it Molecular Combustion was more of a subconscious effort which in the end would be much less exhausting than having to concentrate or accidentally blowing something out. She may or may have not accidentally blown up one of the jets into scraps of metal which she didn’t mean to do but her trainer – Braun – was being a complete douche to her, so technically it wasn’t her fault but Patchy didn’t exactly see it that way. Oh well.

It had also been nearly three years since Tony had first met Norah and since he had all but dragged her from SHIELD’s New York field office and insisted that she was going to be staying with him and Pepper from then on our and not at some sad excuse of a dorm that in his opinion was more suited for a prison than a twenty year old girl. He didn’t even care what Patchy had to say or any of her trainers, Tony linked his and Norah’s arms had her head to her room to collect her belongings and brought her home and gave her any pick of the rooms that she wanted – other than his of course. Even now Norah still didn’t know why Tony decided to take her in back then, especially since she was basically a stranger to him but Norah hoped that it had been her sparkling personality and innocent looks but she more so thought it was because she called Nick Fury, the Director of SHIELD, Patchy instead of his actual title which seemed to tick Nick off like nothing else. It was safe to say that Tony liked Norah from the first moment that he met her. 

Over the years Tony has made Norah a daughter to him in every way but adoption. There’s no doubt that it’s been an interesting three years; Tony building new and improved Iron Man suits, the whole Alien Invasion thing that went on in New York, Tony’s numerous projects that he decided he needed Norah’s input for even though she knew jack squat about engineering, science, chemistry….or any science really. But Norah would never regret any moment that she has been living with Tony and Pepper – her family. Tony, showing a kindness that not many see him being decided to pay for Norah to finish her schooling at New York University and refused to take even a cent from her and no matter how sneaky Norah tried to be he would always be able figure out when she would sneak money to him or into his bank account. After a few months of attempting to sneak him money Norah eventually gave in and let Tony have his way. 

“Come on Tony! I’m on vacation. The first actual real vacation that I have had since you took me in.” Norah said into her Stark Industries phone in annoyance, a dark scowl on her face at the fact that Tony was demanding for her to come back. “I’m in Hawaii and at this exact moment I’m sitting on the beach watching all of the hot half naked men that I can feast my eyes upon. So come on, what is so important that you need me on the soonest flight back to New York. Seriously.” She said in a deadly tone of voice that meant business, if Tony didn’t give her a good enough reason she was going to do everything to make his life hell when she came back to New York. 

Norah grinned proudly when she heard Tony groan in disgust at her words, “Okay one, I never want to hear you talk about feasting your eyes on hot naked men…ugh. I can’t get the visual out of my head. I can’t. You’re my daughter, I don’t need to hear or think about these things.” He said and Norah could have sworn that she heard Tony mumbling to himself about imagining Fury in Pink boxers and bunny slippers to get the image out of his head of Norah staring at men and probably even a bit more than that, his imagination was a bit too wild at times.

“At least I didn’t mention Steve.” Norah pointed out as she dug her toes further into the sand, knowing the rival or annoyance that both Steve and Tony held for each other. 

“Ughh, Norah!” Tony whined like a small child into the phone. “Did you have to go there? Did you really?” he complained loudly from the phone making Norah hold it away from her ear for a moment. “How can you call yourself my daughter when you do things like this?”

“This is exactly something that you would do Tony.” Norah said and looked towards the ocean and saw a rather…well a very attractive man around her age with tanned skin and dreadlocks coming out of the water and man, did he had some mighty looking legs on him, must have been gifted to him by the gods or something. “Look….uh Tony. I’m gonna have to go if you aren’t going to tell me anything important. I have a man to go feast my eyes upon and maybe sink my teeth into. Haven’t decided yet.” She said distractedly as she watched as the ocean water dripped down from the man’s chest and headed southwards towards the band of his swim shorts which were leaving nothing to the imagination. 

“God damnit Norah, really. Just stop. Please, for my sake and sanity please stop.” Tony begged her as if his life depended on it which made Norah snicker. “I do not need to have these sorts of visuals in my head that involve you and other guys, it does things to my emotional state. It makes me want to lock you up forever.” He told her and Norah couldn’t help but give a heartwarming smile at how fatherly Tony sounded, this was how Norah had always wanted her actual father to act like but he always ended up disappointing her one time too many.  
“I’d like to see you try to keep me locked up. Whatever you’d try to lock me in wouldn’t be able to hold me, I’d be able to blow it up in two seconds flat. Tops.” Norah told him confident in her powers and the control she had over them now after working with SHIELD agents and with Tony on honing her power. “Now come on Tony,” she said distractedly as she continued watching the hot guy with dreadlocks make his way out of the ocean with his surf board. “You know that I deserve….need this vacation and now you are interrupting it by calling me three days in. And for your information this is really cramping my style, it’s keeping me from talking and watching all of the hot guys. So not fair.” She said to him as she brushed sand off of her pale calves and gave a slight pout, even though she knew Tony couldn’t see her doing the actual pouting made her feel a bit better. 

For a few moments there was nothing but silence on the other end of the phone that Norah thought that she and Tony had been disconnected somehow but she could still hear background noise of New York City through the phone so she figured Tony was thinking of the best way to word whatever it was that he wanted to say to her, so while Tony was doing that Norah took her time to soak in the atmosphere of being in Hawaii and sitting on the beach and watching as the waves crashed against the sand beach. It was beautiful. The ocean was calming for Norah; feeling the sand between her toes, the water lapping at her and the heat on her skin, the combination of it all helped her to not think about things that troubled her mind once in a while. Mostly her past and her family that though she ran away from and hated how they viewed Mutants, she still loved them and missed them desperately.

“Norah,” Tony said breaking his silence and sounding rather serious which immediately got Norah’s attention; he barely ever used that tone. “We got information about a Hydra base in Sokovia where we believe Loki’s scepter is located at. And, well, we think this guy Strucker is experimenting on people with the help of the scepter.” He told her reservedly, his joking and sarcastic attitude nowhere to be found.   
“Like…like they did to Steve’s friend Bucky?” Norah questioned somberly, remembering the stories and files that she read about what happened to Steve’s childhood best friend and hoped it was nothing as drastic and horrific as that.   
Tony swallowed deeply over the phone, “Yeah.” He answered simply. 

“So you want to bring me in on this mission to Sokovia?” Norah questioned curiously, though she already knew why he wanted her in Sokovia, so that she could help them defeat Hydra with the added benefit of her powers – Blinking from one place to another and blowing things up and people away from where they were was quite an advantage. “You know Pepper hates it when you guys drag me in on these Hydra missions, she thinks that I’m too young to be joining you guys and that it’s much too dangerous for me.” Norah said and gave a half smile at remembering the few times she did go with the Avengers only to return back to the tower with an irate Pepper who would give both herself and Tony a good tongue lashing making both feel as if they were small children once again. 

“Pepper’s out of town for a while.” Tony interjected. “She’ll be overseas on business for a while and will never know that you were with us taking down Hydra. We’ll be in and out before she finds out what happened.” He said flippantly, as if they were talking about the weather or in Tony’s case some simple engineering…thing. 

At that Norah raised her brow in doubt, Pepper was perceptive and had her ways of finding things out even when Tony did all in his power to hide it from her. And Norah had no doubt that Pepper will find out what transpired while she was gone, and when she did come back home to the tower she would not hesitate to rip into Norah for agreeing to go to Sokovia and then would rip into Tony for asking and allowing Norah to go there with him and the rest of the Avengers, and then she would turn on everyone else and tell them how stupid and selfish they were being for allowing a young girl to accompany them on a dangerous mission. Norah was not looking forward to when Pepper finds out. 

“You know she’s going to kill you, right?” Norah questioned as she ran her free hand through her long, messy and wild curly blonde hair which never seemed to want to cooperate with her. 

“Yeah.” Tony said with a tone of dread, Pepper was going to chew him up and spit him back out. 

“Hopefully she won’t feel sadistic enough to try and make Jarvis ban you from your lab for a few days, you’ll be running around like a chicken with its head chopped off.” Norah said as she stared at the half naked dreadlock guy once again, her eyes were basically pulled to his form. 

“Norah, I wonder about you sometimes.” Tony replied with amusement in his voice. “But, anyways. I think I’m willing to suffer the consequences and Peppers anger if it means you’ll join us. We need all the people we can get Norah. This is a big one for us.” He said, the serious tone he’d been using earlier returning once again. 

“So, Sokovia. Are we absolutely positive that is where the scepter is?” Norah questioned but continued talking before Tony had a chance to answer her question. “You do know that Sokovia isn’t exactly the nicest or happiest places in the world, right? It’s been through a lot of war and rioting in the last two or three decades. There’s not really war going on there anymore, but the people are still angry and are fighting with their government. Fighting for their people. Fighting for a better place and a better government. To have freedom.” Norah explained sullenly to Tony. “How dangerous is it going to be?” she asked straight to the point and waiting expectantly for him to answer.

Tony gave a heavy sigh before answering Norah’s question, “Jarvis did a few preliminary scans and dug a bit deeper for some info on the base and well, the results were that there’s a good deal of soldier’s that are working there for this guy Strucker, he’s the one doing these experiments on the people of Sokovia. There are bunkers and watchtowers spread all over in those woods that lead to the Hydra base. I won’t lie to you Norah, this will be dangerous. Pepper will kill where I stand if I bring you on this mission, but we need you Norah. But I…I care for you and if you don’t want to do this I’ll leave you alone for the rest of your vacation and call you when we get back. Promise.” He said sincerely to her, not hint of a lie in his voice about leaving her out of this mission if that was what she wanted to be done. 

Norah appreciated Tony being willing to do that for her but she couldn’t not go, they needed her. “You need my powers Tony, don’t be an idiot. You’ll need the advantage, especially if this guy is experimenting on people and making them…different.” She told him honestly.  
“Thank’s Blinker,” Tony said teasingly, using his nickname he gave her when she showed him her power of Blinking from one place to another. “We’ll keep you safe Norah, you’ll stay with someone at all times to be sure nothing happens to you.” He promised. 

At that Norah rolled her eyes at Tony and his overprotective father routine, “Tony, I’m not a child. Besides, I’m sure I can get myself out of a majority of any situation that I might find myself in.” she reminded him, a smirk forming on her face. 

Norah was almost twenty-three and even though she was considered an adult by modern society she still ended up being treated like a small child or fine china by Tony, Thor and a good portion of everyone else as if they didn’t think she could take care of herself. The only people who seemed to think she could take of herself were Clint and Natasha who would go on missions without needing to ask Norah if she was alright – at least not without hearing her scream or cry out in pain from an attack. Besides, before SHIELD fell and revealed that HYDRA had infiltrated them Norah had been training in more than just learning how to control her powers better, but also how to protect herself and how to use weapons if there ever came a time when her powers failed and was unable to use them to defend herself. By orders of Patchy. 

“When do I leave?” Norah questioned a bit disappointed that her first vacation in years was ending so soon, but she’d make sure Tony would make it up to her and send her on one again, maybe to Bora Bora. 

“Two hours from now,” Tony replied with hesitation, feeling sorry about having to cut his daughter’s vacation short. “A car will pick you up from your hotel.” He explained to her.

Hearing that Norah narrowed her eyes, “You already had all of this arranged, didn’t you?” she questioned him. “You assumed that I was going to say yes.” She accused. 

Tony gave a chuckle, “And you’re surprised at that why?” he questioned teasingly. “Now go on and hurry up and pack your things up, it takes you females forever to get ready.” He said to her. 

“Whatever.” Norah said with a roll of her eyes. 

“Just go get ready kid, I’ll see you soon.” Tony responded amused. 

Norah shook her head, “Don’t worry dad, I’ll be ready.” She said and then hung up the phone and gave a heavy, disappointed sigh.

Norah had wanted to enjoy her time in Hawaii, she needed a vacation and deserved to have one after she had earned her double Bachelor’s degree in Linguistics and in Public Relations. Apparent that wasn’t in the cards. Giving a small pout at the unfairness but understanding why she was needed Norah looked back over towards where the hot guy with dreadlocks had last been and gave an immediate sour attention at what she saw. The guy was still on the beach but he was sitting on the beach with a skinny bottle blonde chick in his lap, yeah, life was definitely unfair at this moment in time. It’s not like Norah was really all that into overly muscled guys anyways. Or hot half naked surfer dudes. 

So Norah stood up from her seated position in the sand, wiped her bikini bottom off from any sand that was stuck there, pulled her simple lime green dress on, slipped her flip flops on and grabbed her tote bag with her stuff in it and headed back towards her hotel to pack the few things that she had strewn about the room in her epically short visit to Hawaii. Yeah, she wasn’t going to be getting over that anytime soon. 

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~ Sokovia ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

 

The one important thing needed to have a surprise attack was having the element of surprise, and that, was one thing that Norah and the rest of the Avengers lacked ten minutes into making their way into the woods as they headed towards the Hydra base that was located in some moderate sized town that was about a twenty-five to thirty minute drive from where the Avengers had agreed they would head on in to attack the Hydra base. 

“Seriously!?” Norah yelled as she glared hatefully at her surroundings, at the Hydra members that were trying to kill them at the moment, a bullet had just lodged itself into the side of the Jeep that she was sitting in the back of, Clint firing away in the front seat while Natasha drove said Jeep, all of the others taking on their own Hydra agents.

“You okay Blinker?” Tony asked through the comm in her ear.

At that Norah scowled, “Stop calling me that,” she growled out as she waved her hands out towards a Hydra vehicle that was fast approaching the one she, Clint and Natasha were in and smiled a bit sadistically when it slammed hard into a grouping of rather large trees. “But yes, I’m fine Tony. Just, you know, almost got shot. No biggie.” She said sarcastically. 

“Norah.” Steve admonished. “Keep your head in the game.” 

Norah shook her head at Steve, always acting like the parent and leader of the group. But he was right, she needed to keep her head in the game and pay attention to her surrounding’s, she’d rather not get shot or get killed because she was bantering back and forth with her pseudo-father. She’d be pretty put out if she ended up dead because of that. 

Norah was glad that she dressed for the colder weather of Sokovia; a light brown colored long sleeved scoop neck shirt, a pair of dark wash skinny motorcycle style jeans, a pair of wide black boots that reached a few inches below her knee, a green colored army style jacket that looked as if it had seen better days.

Suddenly, without any warning Hulk suddenly jumped over the Jeep Norah was in and crashed right into the bunker that was to the left of them and grabbed inside of it and threw a few guys out of it and at the tree’s that sat to the side of it. Thor was in charge of taking out the watchtowers that had armed guards and soldiers up there, Tony was in charge of getting inside of the Hydra base and having Jarvis figure out if the scepter was there or not, Steve was on his motorcycle taking guys out on the ground level same as Norah, Clint and Natasha were doing. And Hulk, well Hulk was smashing any and all enemies that came towards the others. 

“Shit!” Tony’s voice said suddenly over the comms and it sounded as if he ran into something. 

Within moments of Tony swearing did Steve pip up, “Language.” He scolded.

Norah couldn’t help but snort at that but decided to not comment on how much Steve just sounded like a grandpa who would yell at all the young whippersnappers to get off his lawn and to stop playing that weird rap music of theirs and said that music was much better in the good old days. Shaking her head at herself, Norah kicked one of the Hydra agents that had jumped on the back of the Jeep and flung her arm out and made him fly at least ten to fifteen feet away from where they were. Why can’t they ever have an easy or at least moderately easy mission. Was that too much to ask for?

“Jarvis, what’s the view from upstairs?” Steve asked.

“The central building is protected by some kind of energy shield. Strucker’s technology is well beyond any other place we’ve taken.” Jarvis answered immediately.

Norah gave a sigh, “Oh, yay!” she said sarcastically. 

“You know,” Clint said as he shot his gun off at people from the jeep. “I’ve seriously wondered sometimes if you and Tony were really related, you both are too sarcastic for you own good at times.” He mentioned as his eyes narrowed and lined up his gun and took out a man that was heading straight for Steve who was driving a few yards ahead of them. 

“I think I’ll take that as a compliment Legolas.” Tony answered. 

All Norah did was smile, Tony was her father as far as she was concerned. Blood be damned, Tony was her father and nothing, absolutely nothing in the world would be able to change that fact. 

Natasha suddenly spun the vehicle around and slammed it into one of the Hydra vehicle’s as hard as she could and then jumped out of the vehicle to take on some of the agents on foot. Giving a sigh Norah jumped out of the Jeep with ease and then followed after Clint who they had dubbed as Norah’s babysitter for this mission, they did not want her to get injured while on this mission, or worse, captured by Strucker to be experimented on like the rest of the people of Sokovia. Norah shuddered to imagine what Strucker would do with someone like her, with someone who had powers such as she did. It wouldn’t end good, Norah knew that for certain. 

“Come on,” Clint whispered to Norah as he grabbed her coat clad arm and pulled her along with him to the left of where Natasha had run off to. 

Norah ducked as a bullet suddenly whizzed by her head and missed her by mere centimeters and pursed her lips in annoyance at how many times she’s been shot at. She wasn’t a fan of guns in any fashion but knew how to use them because Natasha and Clint insisted, but this, being shot at for the millionth time that day was making her dislike them even more than she did previously. 

“Loki’s scepter must be here.” Thor said suddenly, the sound of grunts and his hammer Mjolnir hitting things. “Strucker couldn’t mount his defense without it.” He explained. “At long last.” He said in relief at finally being able to get his hands back on Loki’s scepter which had been stolen out from SHIELD. 

There was a sound of a grenade going off through the comms, “At long last is lasting a little long boys.” Natasha said through her end.   
Following Clint as he made his way through the woods Norah crouched down by a tree and looked around the tree and gave a flick of her wrist and the Hydra agent that was approaching Clint suddenly went flying quite painfully into the tree that he had previously been standing a few feet in front of not moments before. Norah knew that if she concentrated hard enough she could probably literally blow these agents up, but that was something that Norah would rather not do and would rather not know for certain if she could do so or not. Once you go there, once you go that dark and do something that horrific it’s hard to come back from it.

“Come on Norah,” Clint said from his hiding spot a few tree’s in front of where she was still hiding. 

Nodding in understanding, Norah looked around herself cautiously and then hurried up and ran to where Clint was and then took cover behind a tree that was close to where he was. Taking an arrow out, Clint aimed at the bunker that was in view and then fired it off into the bunker and took cover behind the tree once again as the arrow exploded on impact into the bunker. 

“I think we lost the element of surprise.” Clint said above the sound of gunfire and shouting. 

“Wait a second,” Tony said butting into the conversation. “No one else is going to deal with the fact that Cap just said Language.” He mocked in amusement. 

There was an annoyed sigh, “I know. I know. It just slipped out.” Steve said to them. 

Norah gave a giggle when she heard his exasperated sigh at Tony’s teasing and couldn’t help but join in a bit, “Still an old man I see Steve.” She stated.

“You two are going to be unbearable,” Steve said through the comms to Norah and Tony, the latter who was thoroughly amused by Steve’s slip up. “I can tell.” He said rhetorically. 

As stealthily as they could Norah and Clint made their way further into the forest and closer to where the other bunkers full of Hydra people were at, while making their way Norah was using her powers to blow people into tree’s and away from where her and Clint were heading and making sure that Clint didn’t really have to waste any of his arrows on people who were trying to stop them. He needed them for the bunkers. 

Hiding herself behind a tree a few feet away from where Clint had suddenly stopped Norah watched as Clint notched an arrow and took aim for the bunker and gave a sigh at the fact that Clint was having all the fun, it would take her a few moments at the most to take out the bunker and yet, Clint wouldn’t let her. Because Clint had to be a man about it, he had to say no to Norah and act all manly with his exploding arrowheads and use it on the bunkers, because apparently Norah’s way was too easy and it gave Clint a reason to use his arrowheads. Norah narrowed her eyes and yelled all sort of mean names at Clint inside of her head; she had powers for a reason – to be used. 

Clint fired one of his arrows at the bunker and then quickly took cover behind a tree, Norah mimicking his actions but after a few moments of silence passed without anything happening Clint turned back towards the bunker with a confused look on his face.

“You sure that’s not a dud?” Norah said with a smirk on her face as she watched Clint pull out another arrow.

Clint griped at the tease, “I don’t have duds.” He said simply, a hard look on his face refusing to believe that he had a dud – inconvenient time to have one too.

Shrugging, Clint notched yet another arrow (hopefully this one will go off) but before he had the chance to release it into the bunker a blue blur shaped an awful lot like a person suddenly knocked him into the ground quite painfully. Norah moved a bit to go and help Clint but she held herself back, waiting to see whoever this person was and hoping he would slow down so that it would give Norah the chance to attack him. 

Giving a slight groan of pain Clint got up onto his knees and just breathed for a moment, he may be a skilled fighter and be skilled with a variety of different weapons but that didn’t mean that he couldn’t get the wind knocked out of him and get a bit of bruising from a person who seemed to be able to run at the speed of light. He wasn’t a twenty-five year old kid anymore.

The pale, silver/blonde haired guy grinned down at Clint as he sauntered past him, “You did not see that coming?” he asked. 

Seeing this as her chance, Norah blinked herself form her hiding spot behind a tree that was a few feet away from where Clint and the silver/blonde haired guy were, and made herself reappear in front of him and couldn’t help but smirk when she saw the surprised look on his face but before he had the chance to say or do anything Norah punched him in the face. “Tell me,” she mocked. “Did you see that coming?” 

Rather than being angry like Norah had suspected he would be for getting punched in the nose (especially by a girl), the guy who seemed to be around her age just smiled in amusement before taking off further into the woods, more than likely heading back towards the Hydra base. Norah always loved a challenge. So, Norah did something that she knew Tony, Clint, Pepper and everyone else would yell at her for, she turned her ear comm off, ignored Clint yelling at her to not go after the enhanced as they called them and took off into the woods following the path the silver/blonde haired guy had just gone in. Norah looked ahead at the blur and Blinked herself into the pathway that she saw him going and appeared suddenly in front of him and grabbed onto his dark jacket so that he could not take off without her being taken with him. 

For a few moments both Norah and the guy just looked at one and another without saying anything, Norah’s dark brown eyes looking into his crystal blue colored eyes both filled with curiosity. “You are like myself, yes?” the guy asked her as he cocked his head a bit. “Enhanced?” he questioned with honest eyes.

Norah chuckled a bit at that, “Something like that.” She responded, Mutant’s were born with their abilities rather than being given them by a psychopathic scientist who decided to use Loki’s scepter to experiment on people. 

The guy stared into Norah’s face for a few more moments before he shook his head, as if he was waking himself from a daydream. “They should not send someone young to this dangerous place. Sokovia is not safe. Not for outsiders.” He said to Norah and tensed himself, readying to get out of the girls grin and to run off once again and head towards the base. 

“I’m the only one who can keep up with you.” Norah pointed out giving him a look for calling her young and watched him carefully and waited for him to make any sudden movement to get away from her which she was definitely not going to make easy for him. “I’m not that young.” She said in annoyance and gave a slight huff. 

“I do not wish to hurt you.” He said to Norah as he wrapped his large hands around her wrists which still were clutching onto his jacket. “You are like myself and my sister – enhanced. So I will leave you unharmed. You stay and do not follow.” He said to her seriously, his blue colored eyes looking at Norah intensely which made her lose her concentration for a moment which gave him all the time he needed to loosen Norah’s hand from his jacket and sped off to about ten feet from where she was standing. “I may not want to harm you, but I will if I must.” He said with a smirk and then gave her a wink before taking off into the woods once again. 

Norah gave an annoyed sigh that she let his crystal clear blue eyes distract her and took off after him once again, she was a stubborn thing and refused to admit defeat and besides, he was someone that she had the ability to keep up with so she may as well do her part and chase after him. Any one of the other Avengers would have done the same thing. 

So with that Norah took on a determined look on her face and took after the guy, Blinking herself closer and closer to his general direction. Norah would fully admit that this guy, whatever his name was, was a playful thing and was attractive and had a hot as fuck accent. There was no denying those facts.

“Damn it Norah.” Norah admonished herself as she chased/blinked after the Sokovian and ignored the voices coming over her comm asking where she was. “Now is not the time to get the hots for the bad guy. You work with the Avengers, he works with Hydra. Bad idea waiting to happen.” She lectured to herself. 

Yeah, it was official, Norah so needed to get out of and away from the Tower and away from all the guys if this was how she ended up trying to find prospective boyfriends. Even by Tony’s standards finding a Hydra agent attractive was a big no no. Though, Loki would have probably been a much worse pick so at least Norah got points for not going for the crazy psychopathic god who wanted to rule Earth.   
Once again Norah Blinked herself in front of the hot Sokovian – not hot, Norah reminded herself, he was not hot in any way whatsoever. When he saw her he gave her a pointed look for not staying like he told her but before he was able to run off again she suddenly grabbed onto his jacket once again and Blinked them to a spot further in the woods. Seeing as this guy has never experienced what Blinking is, he tumbled a bit from the experience which resulted in the two of them rolling on the ground a bit before finally stopping with Norah lying on top of him with their chests pressed tightly against one and another and Norah’s legs folded up on either side of his hips.

“Sorry. Should’ve warned you about that.” Norah said with a smirk that showed that she wasn’t really all that sorry about having him go through what Blinking from one place to another felt like. 

Rather than commenting on that…..experience, he looked up into her face. “I thought I had told you to stay.” He said smirking at her wolfishly as his hands settled near her hips, as if he was readying to throw Norah off of him so that he could run for it. 

Norah gave a small half-smile at that statement, “I don’t exactly take orders from people all that well, especially from people that I don’t know.” 

At that the guy gave a bit of a laugh, “That I understand.” He said to her.

For a few moments all Norah and the guy did was stare, neither sure what to say to one and another or do. Norah knew that if she moved even the slightest that this guy – calling him guy was getting really old – would jump up and run off and try and lose her before she could even blink. 

“I admit,” he said as he looked up at Norah. “This, not bad sight.” He said flirtatiously to her.

Norah shook her head at him and lightly slapped the side of his head, “Ah ah ah, no. Bad. No flirting.” She said to him with a pointed look, narrowing her eyes at him suspiciously. “You’re Hydra, no fraternizing with the enemy and all that. Didn’t you read the fine print.” She said to him in a faux-appalled way at the fact that he didn’t know about that. 

“I am not one to follow rules.” He admitted as he rubbed his fingers against the bit of skin that was peeking out from the layers of Norah’s clothing. 

Reacting immediately, Norah pushed herself into a seated position on the blue/silver haired guy and gave him a pointed look. “Keep your hands to yourself.” She said as she wagged her finger at him as a school teacher would to a child who was behaving badly.   
“You are one sitting on me.” He said to her in amusement.

All Norah did in response to that was roll her eyes and took on a somber expression, “I don’t know what they’ve told you, those people you work for but they are not nice people. They do not do good things. They-“

“They offered chance to myself and my sister. We took it. They say they help us, help us fight for country. They help us live, find us place to live. Give us food. That is nothing what bad people, evil people would do.” He said, his accent coming on thicker as he got emotional about what he was talking about.

“You don’t know them, not really.” Norah said to him. “They may be helping you, but they are helping you for their own benefit. Have you been able to do something that would help your people yet? I’ve seen what Hydra has done to people, I’ve read what sort of…..things they’ve done. Don-“

Before Norah had a chance to finish her sentence the guy suddenly grasped her more firmly around the waist and switched their positions so that she now laid out on the ground and he was on top of her, looming over her with a fierce look on his face. 

“You do not understand what we’ve been through.” He said in an almost whisper and then pushed himself off of Norah and ran off once again.

Norah glared in the direction he ran off to, she was seriously getting sick of him running off on her and her having to chase him, again. Quickly following after him once again Norah Blinked herself further up where she knew the Sokovian was heading, she ran a bit and then Blinked herself closer and closer to the Sokovian until she was finally close enough and then launched herself at him and tackled him to the ground and pinned him where he laid. Admittedly though, Norah knew that if this guy wanted to get up and take off once again she wasn’t really stopping him, he was a bit taller and stronger than her from what she could tell. 

Breathing heavily, Norah looked down into the amused and surprised crystal blue eyes of the guy and tried to regain her breathing to a more normal and steady level than the erratic breathing that she seemed to be doing at the moment. 

He grinned up at her and tugged playfully on a very curly strand of hair that escaped the side braid she pulled her hair into, “If we were not opposite side of this, this would be a time to take advantage of our situation.” He intoned heatedly, a flirtatious glint in his eyes as he suddenly bucked his hips a bit into Norah inhaled sharply at the feeling, god she needed to find a boyfriend…..a non-Hydra allied one.  
Leaning down towards his ear, “If we were in a different situation there would be less clothing involved.” She breathed heavily into his ear, god why did he have to be so attractive and have an accent, she was a sucker for guys with accents.   
“Promise?” he questioned with darkened eyes. 

Before Norah had a chance to respond to him her ear comm went off again, “Norah we need you. Barton’s been injured. We need you to take him back to the quinjet. Do you copy.” Natasha’s voice said into her ear from the ear comm. 

Norah didn’t respond for a moment, thanking the gods that she had muted her ear comm. “Sweets, I wouldn’t hesitate to be in a situation where we would have less clothing involved.” She told him playfully as she tapped the bit of facial hair he had around his mouth and chin.   
“But, alas. You are with Hydra and I am with the Avengers. Too bad.” 

“NORAH!” The voice of Natasha yelled once again, a tone of panic coming through. 

Norah did something rash then, something she would not be admitting to anyone on the team. Norah leaned down close to the rather attractive silver/blonde haired guy who seemed to be studying her at the moment and stared into his blue eyes for but a second before she gently grasped his chin into her hand and then kissed him quickly but fiercely and leapt off of him and Blinked to about a yard away from him. 

“It’s too bad,” Norah said as she watched him zip right up into a standing position while looking at her with a raised brow, curiosity clear in his eyes. “You’re quite tasty.” 

He took a few steps forward, at a much slower pace than what he liked. “You gave no time for me to respond.” 

Smirking at him, Norah gave a half shrug in his direction. “Snooze you lose darling.” She said and listened to her ear comm."Well speedy, till next time. I got a friend to go help right now.” She said and grinned widely at the expression of confusion, wonder, curiosity and amusement and Blinked herself out of the vicinity of the rather attractive man and to the last place that Clint and she had been so that she could take him up to the quinjet. 

Blinking back to that wooded area Norah’s eyes widened when she saw the state of Clint, he looked a bit paler than usual and there was a good amount of blood on his side and on his hands where he tried to stop the bleeding by putting pressure on his wound. But before Norah could approach Clint and ask him what happened a rather broad and tall chest appeared in front of her line of vision. Looking up from the chest Norah gave a small grimace at the expression that was on Steve’s face at the moment, he was definitely not a happy camper at the moment and was more than likely beyond pissed at her. 

“Uh-“

But before Norah had the chance to string together a coherent sentence Steve crossed his arms and looked down at her with narrowed eyes, that was sign enough that she was about to get lectured which made her internally sigh. Norah liked Steve, she really did. She wasn’t like Tony who had a vendetta against him – though Tony did because his father as obsessed with finding Captain America after he went down in the ocean – but whatever, she liked Steve. He was nice, he cared for other people, and he would sacrifice his life for others and protect those that needed protection. But Norah hated it when he treated her like she needed constant protection, as if she was a child who couldn’t protect herself. 

“Where were you?” he demanded as he looked at Norah seriously. “You were supposed to stay with Clint; he was supposed to keep you safe in case something happened. But I come to find out from Clint that you had run off and chased after the male enhanced.” He said, a tone of worry in his voice which made Norah feel guilty for taking off and muting her comm but she was sick and tired of the majority of them treating her like she didn’t know what she was doing, like she couldn’t handle this. “What were you thinking?”

At that Norah sent an exasperated look to Steve, “I was thinking, Captain, that I was the only one who would be able to keep up with him.” She pointed out to him without hesitation; Steve liked order and he liked orders to be followed but Norah being Norah didn’t always do that and sometimes situations called for orders to be broken. “Look, I know you guys all worry about me but I can take care of myself. I have powers, two powers that give me an advantage in almost any situation that I may find myself in but you don’t seem to understand this, you don’t seem to understand that I can go out there without having a damn babysitter.” She yelled at him, her eyes narrowing at having to constantly have someone with her when she went out on missions with the Avengers. “I am not a child and I am sick of being treated like one by everyone, Clint and Natasha seem to be the only ones who don’t treat me like a child when we are out here, fighting.” She said gesturing wildly which made Steve take a step back, afraid that her power will get out of her control.

“Look, Norah.” Steve said raising his hands in a peaceful gesture. “Let’s calm down,” he said to her watching her hands closely. “And please, put your hands down.” He told her quietly. 

At that Norah gave him an unbelievable look, “I’m in control!” she said to him as she shook her head at him. “Jesus, I’ve worked hard to be able to control my power where I wouldn’t have to worry about blowing something up. You act like I just got this power or something.” She said and then stepped away from him and looked towards Clint. “Whatever. I don’t care.” She scoffed at him and walked past him so that she could get Clint to the quinjet so that they could patch him up the best they could until they got back to the tower.

“Norah-“

Norah shook her head and stepped out of reach of Steve, “Don’t.” she said shaking her head vehemently. “You guys asked me to come and help, and when you do that you need to treat me like a team member and not as a child.” She said softly to him and then walked forward and wrapped her hand around one of Clint’s and then Blinked out of sight. 

Groaning, Steve ran his hands through his hair. He remembered a time when dames used to be happy to be taken care of and worried about like he was doing over Norah and her suddenly disappearing and chasing after an enhanced who she didn’t even think was dangerous. Women nowadays were very independent and didn’t like to be told what to do and didn’t like to be helped when they believe they can do something – like Norah. 

“She’s right you know.” Natasha said suddenly appearing beside Steve making the enhanced Soldier jump in surprise. “You guys all treat her as if she can’t do anything to help, as if she needs to constantly be watched in case something happens.” She said with an amused smile on her face. “Sometimes you just gotta let things happen, if she gets stabbed, shot or beat. You just have to let that happen. She’s almost twenty-three and you all are acting like a mother hen. It’s suffocating for her.”

“She’s just a kid.” Steve said to her, as if that explained why he and everyone was so protective of her.

At that Natasha looked up at Steve with a raised brow, “Technically speaking, you are maybe four or so years older than her.” She pointed out to him simply. 

“That’s different.” Steve said. “I’ve got super soldier serum in me, she-“

“She’s a Mutant.” Natasha said bluntly to him. “She’s different. She has powers, one of which she can use as in a defensive way. She can take care of herself, it’s time you all realize that.” She said and then glided away from where Steve was standing.

Steve sighed once again, this new world, this…..modern world was confusing and fascinating all at the same time. The food and music was better but he didn’t have a clue how to interact with some of the people – females especially. No matter what time he was in females would always be confusing.

“Come one Cap,” Natasha said as she looked back at Steve. “We got work to do.”


	4. Chapter 4

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_ Pietro ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

Once the girl had left him lying in the middle of the woods all Pietro could do for a few moments was just lay there in awe, shock, confusion and wonder all at the same time. This girl who could have barely been five foot four, with long and wild curly blonde hair, and pale skin that almost matched the paleness of his sister Wanda, and had such expressive dark colored eyes….this girl captured his interest without much effort whatsoever. Whoever that girl was could have barely been much older than him and Wanda, if that even. 

What had intrigued Pietro the most though was the fact that she was like him and Wanda – she had powers no normal person could possess. When he had called her an enhanced the girl had gave a wry smile and instead had said ‘something like that’ and that made Pietro just that much more curious wondering what she could be. If the girl wasn’t an enhanced then what exactly was she that she had powers and god, what a power it was. She could move from one place to another in a blink of an eye, and that excited Pietro because that meant that there was actually someone out there who would be able to keep up with his lightning fast speed. 

Getting up from the ground where the girl had left him after she kissed him, Pietro brushed himself from the leaves that had stuck to him and headed back towards his sister but, at a much slower pace than he would have in any other situation but he wanted time to think and ponder over this girl that he had only just met. If you could really call her cashing after him and tackling him meeting, but it was what it was. If they were not on opposite sides he would not have hesitated to get to know her, but the Avengers and Tony Stark were his enemies.   
It has been a long time since Pietro has had the chance to exit the Hydra base and to interact with others who were not his sister, Strucker or any of the scientists and soldiers that were within the base. He knew that was one reason that he seemed to feel as if he was being pulled towards that girl, but in the back of his mind he knew that it was not the only reason why either. 

Pietro was confident that it would not be long before he saw the girl and the Avengers once again.

“You took your time Pietro.” Wanda said as she saw her brother approach from the tunnel that lead to the basement of the base they have called a home, if you could even call it that. 

Pietro smiled at his sister and then gently caressed the side of her cheek and kissed her forehead brotherly, “There was a run in that I had.” He told her simply, picturing the blonde haired girl in his head who seemed to have fire in her eyes when she talked f something she believed in.

Hearing that Wanda pulled back a bit and looked up into her brother’s face, “a run in?” she questioned. “You are not injured?” she asked worriedly already looking her brother up and down to see if any harm had come to him but the only injury that she spied was a bruise forming on his nose which made her narrow her eyes. “Who hurt you?”

“It is nothing to worry of.” Pietro said to her in a calming fashion. “It was a girl.” He said and gave a smile when he said that.

Wanda cocked her head to the side in confusion, wondering why the fact that a girl punched her brother brought a smile to his face. “Why are you reacting like this? I do not understand. Why are you not angry?” she asked imploringly. 

Pietro took his sister’s hands into his and kissed her fingers gently, “The girl is interesting, I am curious of her. She…Wanda, she can do things as we can.” He explained to her. “But when I asked if she was enhanced as we are, she did not say yes. Without saying so, she said that she was something else along those lines.” He told her a hint of excitement in his eyes. 

“How…how is that possible?” Wanda asked in wonder, the way that both she and Pietro had received their powers were by means of Strucker experiments on them with that Scepter of his, but if what the girl told Pietro was true then she had come into her powers by another means……a less painful means. 

Pietro shook his head, “I do not know Wanda but she did. She could move from one place to another within a blink of an eye, she was ten or more feet behind me and the next I know she has grabbed my shirt so I could not take off without her coming with. She was able to keep up with me, she was a stubborn thing and would not give up her chase of me.” He admitted with a hint of an amused smile on his face at that.  
Wanda looked at her brother, “I have never heard from any of the scientist’s or Strucker of other ways to acquire powers. Why have we not heard of this?” she questioned in anger as she moved her hands around, a red essence surrounding her hands in her anger.

Before Wanda was able to do some damage Pietro grasped her hands, “Calm my sister. There is nothing to change how we came into our abilities.” 

“I know,” Wanda whispered and she took a deep breath and tried to control her anger that suddenly came on at the fact of finding out that there was a girl who had powers without having the need to be experimented on. “I just, I wish that there was a way that we could have had powers without having to go through that pain and without having to be constantly tested.”

“I know. I know Wanda.” Pietro said comfortingly to his sister, the only person that meant anything to him. “It is done, yes?” he said to her and then pulled away before walking further into the tunnel. “Come, we cannot stay here.” 

Wanda gave a nod, “Yes, let’s go brother.” 

So with that both Wanda and Pietro left and stealthily made their way into the tunnel and back to the base so that they may grab the very few belongings that they had at the Hydra base and then left and headed further into the city so that they may find some place to stay for a while before they decided on what they were to do now. No matter what, they both knew that they were going to get revenge on Tony Stark – it is his fault that their parents no longer lived and he was going to get what he deserved for killing them with his weapons of death. 

Neither would be able to fully rest until Tony Stark paid for what he did to their parents.


	5. Chapter 5

Finally, after being in Sokovia for a few days making a plan of attack and then attacking the Hydra base in Sokovia the Avengers and Norah were heading back home to New York – to Stark Tower. Norah for one was excited to get back to the tower, she missed her nice, big and comfortable bed that had six pillows laying on it, her stuffed otter Mr. Puddles (yes she was a twenty some year old with a stuffed animal. Who cares?), she had a beautiful view of the city from the bay window that was in her room that had deep blue cushions. The first thing Norah planned on doing once they all got back to the tower was flinging herself onto her bed and wrapping herself up in her blankets and maybe, if she was lucky, take a small nap. But that would have to wait for a few more hours, they were still a bit out from arriving at the Tower. 

At the moment Norah was seated down beside Clint who was laid up on a Stark designed medical gurney with an IV in his arm and looking every bit of being in pain, “You know,” Norah started as she looked at Clint who shifted a bit so he could look at her better. “Being the skilled assassin that you are I thought you’d think to check for a dud in your arrows,” she began and ignored Clint’s exclamation of ‘it wasn’t a dud’ and continued speaking as if he never interrupted. “Then, after that you got knocked down by a twenty-something year old guy and then you let yourself get distracted enough to get shot in the side by one of the Bunker weapons.” Norah finished, tsking at him in faux disappointment. “Are you sure you’re not getting too old for this?” Norah asked jokingly. 

“If I wasn’t injured at the moment I’d kick your ass for your smart assed mouth.” Clint said as he glared at Norah who was grinning widely at him, as if she was proud of herself for being a smart ass to Clint. 

Norah scoffed, “You love me like this and you know it. Your life would feel incredibly boring if you didn’t have my sparkling personality, innocent looks and smart ass comments to make the day go by faster.” She said cheerily. 

At that Clint rolled his eyes at her, “Innocent my ass.” He grumbled under his breath. “Sometimes, Norah.” Clint said looking into her dark brown colored eyes which contrasted against her pale skin and blonde hair. “You are a bit too much Tony. And I really think for a few moments that you share DNA.” 

“If Tony was actually my father I would be ten times worse.” Norah pointed out to him simply which made Clint shudder at the thought of Tony reproducing – it would be complete chaos. 

Norah closed her eyes for a moment and leaned her head up against the wall and tried to empty her mind of everything that just happened in Sokovia but no matter how much she tried to clear her mind one face kept on popping up. His face. The speedster’s. Touching her lips with her finger Norah couldn’t help but give a quick smile at remembering the feeling of his lips against hers, she didn’t know why exactly she decided to kiss him, it was as if her body had a mind of its own. Norah shouldn’t have enjoyed giving a quick kiss to him, but she did. God Norah so needed to get out more and go to the bars if this was how she reacted around a fairly attractive guy – a Hydra one at that. It’s been……a while, a really long while since Norah has been with anyone or dated anyone. Norah just kept on yelling internally at herself that he was with Hydra, that he was bad, that she shouldn’t even be entertaining the thought of him, as if it was a mantra. Something to live by.   
“Norah?” Clint questioned in concern when he saw her stare off into the distance, lost in her thoughts. “You okay?” he asked with a cocked eyebrow. 

Shaking herself out of her thoughts Norah looked at Clint and plastered on a forced smile, “Yeah, yeah. I’m fine. No worries.” She told him, waving his concern off but Clint just stared at her intently as if he was trying to unravel why she suddenly had a far off look in her eyes not but a moment ago. 

Clint opened his mouth to question Norah on the subject but thought better of it and closed his mouth, he’s known Norah for the last three or so years and knew her well enough that if she didn’t want to talk about something that she wasn’t going to. She was stubborn as a bull. Clint knew that this time was one of those times when she didn’t want to talk about something; it was in how she clenched her hands and how she tensed her arms up a bit. All pointed to the fact that she didn’t want to talk about whatever it was that she had been thinking about. 

“Usually I’m more than happy for you to go off and take on bad guys, you have a killer power and if you have it you should use it.” Clint said as he scrunched his face in pain for a moment. “But Norah, you shouldn’t have run off after that guy by yourself. We didn’t know what his powers were for sure other than he can run fast.” Clint pointed out to her, a serious look in his eye and just as Norah opened her mouth to retort Clint continued on. “Look, I know you can take care of yourself. I’ve seen you use your power to full capacity and blow a jet up not that Fury was real happy about that but we learned how far we can push your powers. But, we don’t know the capabilities of these people or how far they’ll go to get what they want.” 

At that Norah gave a heavy sigh and crossed her arms under her rather well-endowed chest, “Geeze, you’re starting to sound like Steve now Clint.” She said in annoyance at she was basically getting the same conversation twice. “I knew what the dangers were when I ran off, okay? I know that he could have had more than just the ability to run as fast as lightening. Okay, I do get that. But it was a chance I was willing to take.” She said to him stubbornly. “I was the only one who had a chance of keeping up with him. He may be fast, but I have skills too.”  
“Norah, you could have been led into a trap by him.” Clint pointed out calmly as he could, he worried for her like anyone else on the team did. “If Hydra got their hands on you….it…I don’t know what we would do Norah.” He admitted to her. “Nothing good would have come of it, they would have done horrible things to you. Tortured you. Experimented on you.” 

“I know!” she hissed at him quietly so that the others couldn’t hear exactly what they were talking about. “I know what the risks were when I agreed to come on this mission of your guys’.” She huffed at him and then rubbed at her temples, she felt a head ache coming on. “I thought out of everyone you and Tasha were the ones who believed in me and my abilities and were willing to let me do my own thing for the most part.” She said and gave him a pointed look, silently questioning why he was acting like this now. 

Clint ran a hand over his face, the one without the IV in it. “I know, I know. I’m sorry Norah. It’s just that this was one of the more dangerous of missions that we’ve gone on. If something happened to you….well Pepper would skin us all alive and you know it. We care about you.” He told her.

Instead of responding to that statement Norah gave a wry smile on her face and gently squeezed Clint’s hand in thanks; it’s been a long time since someone has cared for her as if she was their family. Sure, the guys at Xavier’s Institute cared for her and welcomed her with open arms but the only people who really treated her as if shew as family had been Kitty and Piotr. Even when she moved to Europe and settled down in Sweden she didn’t really find that many people – friends – to connect with and to feel as if she could consider them family one day. The Avenger’s though, they were accepting through and through, they were her chosen family. 

“Did you find anything out?” Clint asked curiously, breaking the silence that had settled between the two of them.

“Eh,” Norah said noncommittal. “Not all that much.” She admitted to him with a frown on her face. “I learned that he and his sister volunteered to be experimented on by Strucker. From what I could understand Strucker offered them a way to help their country, to somehow bring true Freedom to their country, to free them from the corruptness that Sokovia seems to be surrounded by. They volunteered to be experimented on so that they could help their people and their country – not so different from Steve.” She stated quietly, seeing the eerie similarities to Steve when he volunteered to take the Soldier Serum and now with what the speedster and his sister did. 

Clint’s lips thinned when he heard what Norah said and what Strucker did in order to get volunteer’s. “Strucker pulled on their heartstrings, made them feel, made them believe in him and hear what he was offering up. He offered something up to them that they wouldn’t be able to say no to.” He said with a shake of his head. “They are still with Hydra though Norah.” He said to her. “Don’t forget that.” 

Norah looked at Clint with an unimpressed look, “I know Clint. Don’t worry.” 

After that the two of them settled into a comfortable quiet silence, Clint trying to ignore the pain that was quite obviously causing him a lot of discomfort and Norah trying to clear her mind and trying to not think about the guy and his sister and feeling for them and understanding why they did what they did. They were with Hydra, no doubt about that but Hydra lured them into joining, into being experimented on by dangling what they wanted and what they needed to help their country right in front of their noses. No one would have been able to resist. Not even Steve. 

If Norah had been in their shoes she would have made the same decision as the two of them, she would sacrifice anything and everything in order to protect what she loved and those that she loved and cared for. She would straight out kill for Pepper and Tony, no questions asked.   
The voice of Natasha asking Thor for a report of the Hulk broke Norah’s train of thought and forced her to look towards where the majority of her other team members were. 

Thor grinned triumphantly, “The gates of hell are filled with the screams of his victims.” He stated as if that was the exact answer that they wanted to hear but when he saw Natasha looking at him wide eyed and unbelievable he back tracked a bit. “Uhh not the screams of the dead of course. Wounded screams maybe, whimpering and a great deal of complaining about sprained deltoids and uh, gout.” He finished lamely.

Hearing that Norah couldn’t help but snort in amusement and then look over at Clint who had an amused smirk on his face, “He’s not one for tact, is he?” she questioned rhetorically as she looked over at Thor who was looking at Bruce apologetically. 

“Not as far as I have known.” Clint answered simply. 

The moment that they all had arrived at Stark Tower, Clint was wheeled away into Bruce’s lab so that Dr. Cho could work on fixing Clint and the injury he had gotten in his side which was at least a tad bit concerning, Natasha following along where her best friend was being wheeled. Thor also left the jet going to who knows where in the building which left just Tony, Steve and Norah in the quinjet.

Norah got up and headed towards her father figure and hip bumped him playfully and looked up into his eyes and gave him a serious look, “Don’t keep yourself locked up in your lab going over that scepter.” She said and poked his chest as she ended her serious statement. “I mean it. And don’t forget to eat.” 

“Who are you, Pepper?” Tony questioned. “I get enough of this from her, I don’t need you on my case too! You’re supposed to be on my side, my mini-me!” he said excitedly. “The non- Austin Powers sort.” 

At that Norah gave a small smile at the eccentrics and oddness of her ‘father’ and poked him hard in the chest, “I mean it Tony, don’t go overboard or else Pepper will kill you. Not to mention adding that onto the fact she will be killing you anyways for having me come with you on this mission, she will find out.” She said to him in a deadly serious tone of voice. “And I’m not crazy enough to get on her bad side.”   
“Don’t worry.” He said flippantly as he turned in his seat as Maria Hill walked up and into the quinjet.

“I tend to worry when you tell me not to worry.” Norah pointed out to him with a shake of her head. “If you get yourself killed from doing something stupid, I’m so not telling Pepper.” She said under her breath and then headed out of the Quinjet and to the elevator so that she could go to the floor that her room was on. 

Norah did want to fling herself onto her bed and sleep the day away – Pepper would reprimand her if she found out – but realistically she knew she couldn’t sleep. For one, she was covered in grime, a bit of woods, and some blood which was probably Clint’s so really, all Norah wanted to do now was get out of her clothes and change into some clean one’s that would make her feel a bit more human. A shower would also help relax her sore and overworked muscles from running and rolling on the ground with a certain blonde/silver haired Sokovian. 

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

Feeling less nasty and more clean after taking a shower and changing into a pair of knee length yoga pants and an old Misfit’s band T-shirt Norah left the confines of her room and headed down to Bruce’s lab to see how Clin’t was holding up. Opting to go barefoot Norah took the elevator down a few levels and then padded her way down the hall and down a few flights of stairs before arriving at the level Bruce’s lab was at, spotting the majority of the Avenger’s Norah made her way over to them. 

“You sure he’s going to be okay?” Natasha questioned as Norah walked inside. “Pretending to need this guy really brings the team together.” She joked in an almost serious tone of voice.

Cho smiled at that, “There’s no possibility of deterioration. His cell’s don’t know they’re bonding.” She said to Natasha and Clint. 

Bruce came up and looked amazed, “She is creating tissue.” He said in awe at what her machine could do.

“If you would have brought him to my lab the regenerating cradle could have done this in twenty minutes.” Cho explained to them as she watched the progress of her much smaller machine.

“Nah,” Norah said as she came up on one side of Clint and watched the light of the machine scanning the wound so to say and creating new cells – fascinating and disgusting all at the same time. “Let him suffer, make him have to wait longer to heal up. We all know it’s driving him nuts.” She said with an amused grin sent towards Clint who was rapping his fingers against the bed.  
“Uh oh,” Tony said passing drinks out. “He’s flat lining, call it. Time?” 

Clint gave a bit of a raspy laugh, “No, no, no. I’m going to live forever. I’m going to be made of plastic.” He said with a grin on his face at that thought. 

Cho shook her head at Clint, “You’ll be made of you Mr. Barton. Your own girlfriend won’t be able to tell the difference.”   
“I don’t have a girlfriend.” Clint pointed out to her.

“Well that I can’t help you with.” Cho said to him and watched the progress of Clint’s healing. 

Norah continued to watch the machine heal Clint up, it was amazing that the medical field has come so far that they are able to use this sort of technology to heal people from damn near anything apparently. Watching this machine go at it was making Norah have the urge to touch the light, or at least poke the thing itself but she held that urge back. Sometimes Norah couldn’t help but act like a five year old child, she blamed that on the fact that she didn’t really have much of a childhood when she was growing up; her father was an alcoholic and a drug dealer and her mother had to work just to keep a roof over their heads since her husband was always drunk.

Steve came into the room wearing normal clothes rather than his Captain America outfit, but even when in normal clothes he looked like he stepped out of a movie from the 1940’s. “How are you holding up?” Steve questioned as he looked at Clint. 

Clint smiled and then gave a thumbs up, “Fine Cap, gonna be good as new thanks to Dr. Cho’s technology.” He said to him. “Not gonna be made of plastic thankfully.”

At that Steve cocked his head to the side and looked at Clint a bit oddly but shrugged, “Glad to hear.” He said with a nod and then turned towards Norah with an undistinguishable look on his face. “Can I talk to you for a moment?” he asked.

Norah gave an inaudible sigh when Steve asked that but gave a nod in affirmation nonetheless. “Sure.” She said and watched as Steve turned around and walked out of the lab. “Well, bye. I guess I’m going to have a little talk. Don’t go dying on me.” She said as she looked at Clint pointedly and then left the lab to go have a talk with Steve. 

Steve led Norah down a hallway and then up a set of stairs before he turned around and leaned his forearms against the railing and looked out and over the floors that they could look down into. For a few moments Norah studied Steve, trying to see what he wanted to say to her but shook her head and decided to follow suit and also lean against the railing and look down at the few scattered people that were milling down on the floors that were below them. 

“I was wrong.” Steve said to her suddenly as he glanced over to Norah who had turned to him. “I was wrong about how we’ve been treating you when we ask you to come with us on missions. Natasha and Clint are the only ones who seem to never be worried about you when you come with us, they believe in your skills and in your powers. But the rest of us, we treat you like a kid, as if you don’t know your right from your left when you go into battle. We stick you with a babysitter so that if something happens they can protect and help you, when you first started coming with us that was needed because you’ve never been out fighting the bad guys but now…..now it’s unneeded.” He said and paused for a moment so that he could gather his thoughts and put what he wanted to say to her into words. “I never thought it was possible to have special abilities like yours and like other Mutant’s have, I because this,” he said gesturing at himself. “Because of a science experiment basically. You, you were born like this. You’ve always been different; it just took time for your powers to develop.”

Steve stopped talking for a moment and seemed to be waiting for Norah to say something to him but rather than saying anything Norah stayed quiet and looked at Steve Expectantly, waiting to her the rest of whatever he had to say to her. It was obvious he had a whole speech prepared to apologize to her.

“I’ve seen you fight Norah. You may not be on the level of Natasha but you can fight. And your powers are an asset, something you should rely on if you have them.” Steve began and turned so that he could look at Norah better. “I’ve seen what you can do with your powers…you are incredibly powerful with them and I have no doubt that if you wanted to take me out that you would be able to with little to no effort.” Steve said which gained a small smirk from Norah. “You are twenty-two years old Norah and we don’t have a right to treat you like that, the only one who has a right to be overprotective of you is Tony. The rest of us have no right. It’s about time we start treating you like any other team member.” He ended.

For a few moments neither Norah nor Steve said anything; Steve waiting for Norah’s response to his apology and Norah letting everything sink in and trying to figure out the best way to respond to Steve’s apology and saying that he had been wrong.

“I’m not happy about how you guys treated me,” Norah started after a few moments of silence. “I’m not saying you treated me badly but you did treat me unfairly. I’m too old to be treated like that Steve, I’ve done too much, seen too much and have experienced too much to be treated like a piece of glass. I understand that you all being stronger than me and more skilled than me in fighting that you want to protect me and that back in the day that’s how you men type treated woman and sure, a bit of coddling and care is pretty damn nice but not when it’s in the middle of a mission. Not when you all know that I can protect myself.” Norah explained to him as she ran one of her hands through her long, wild and crazy curly blonde hair. “I don’t need to be constantly watched over, okay?” she questioned with a ‘listen to me or else’ sort of expression on her face. 

Steve nodded without much hesitation, not wanting to get on Norah’s bad side. “Okay. I’ll do my best to.” He answered with a slight smile on his face. “It’s in my upbringing to treat dame’s like you properly and to make sure you are cared for.” He said with a shrug of his shoulders as a way to explain why he did what he did at times. 

“Well try and reign that upbringing in when it comes to me, okay.” Norah said to him with a playful smile on her face.  
In response to that Steve chuckled a bit, “I’ll see what I can do.” 

After their talk and Steve understanding that he needed to let Norah be an actual team member and treat her like one rather than a child, the two went their separate ways. Steve to do whatever it was that he wanted to do and Norah headed to her bedroom, she was tired after all these long days in Sokovia and fighting so she figured that she might as well go to bed early and get a good night’s rest in her very, very comfortable bed that has been calling to her since she got back at the tower. Once in her room Norah made quick work of stripping out of her clothes and pulling on a simple knee length night shirt and settled herself on her bed and then reached over to her night stand and pulled out a photo album that she’s had since before she ran away from home at fifteen years old. 

Something that Norah would do almost every night was pull out a photo album of her family – her family in Minnesota that was – and look through the pictures so that she could remind herself what her mother, her older sister Niki and handful of other relatives looked like. But Norah mostly looked at the pictures of her mother and sister and wondered, she wondered what they were doing, how they were, what they’ve done with their lives since she ran off, if they miss her, if her sister was married yet, did her sister have any kids yet, she wondered if her mother and sister thought of her at all and wondered if they had tried to find her.

When Norah had moved in with Tony she asked him for a favor, to find out if her mother and sister still lived in Minnesota. She didn’t want to know anything else about them; she didn’t want to know if her mother got remarried, she didn’t want to know where exactly they lived and she definitely didn’t want to know their phone numbers. Tony did as Norah asked and found out that her family still lived in Minnesota and that he had even found some pictures of them but Norah refused to look at them saying she couldn’t look at them, that if she did she’d want to go back and see them and that was something she couldn’t do. Not yet at least. The only thing Norah had told Tony after he found out they still lived in Minnesota was to ask if he would keep tabs on them, just so that Norah would be notified if they decided to move out of state or something along those lines. 

Norah appreciated that Tony didn’t try and push her and question her on why she refused to have anything to do with her family, why she didn’t want updates on their lives and why she didn’t want to see pictures of her family. He understood her, understood why she couldn’t and for that Norah would be grateful to him.

Not even when Norah had been running away did she feel hate towards her mother and sister, in fact, she loved them so much and felt so much despair and pain for the fact that she had to run away. She knew that coming to terms with the fact that someone you love was a Mutant was hard, that it was hard to understand Mutant’s in general and actually comprehend that not all Mutant’s are bad or dangerous and need to be ‘fixed’ as some people referred to it as. Norah wished she could help them understand, help her mother and sister understand that not all Mutant’s were bad and that not all of them ended up becoming evil and horrible people who only want to hurt others, to hurt regular people. But Norah knew she was fighting a losing battle and made the hardest and best decision that she could – to run away. Norah knew if she stayed at home her mother would force her to go to a doctor that would try and ‘fix’ her and that was something that she would not let happen to herself, she was a Mutant and refused to lose her powers simply because her family was afraid of what she could do. 

There was no doubt that Norah was angry and bitter over the fact that she had to leave, that she had to run away because they didn’t understand when tons of other Mutant’s that she went to school with had understanding parents, had people who accepted them for who they were and what they were. Norah didn’t want to run away, she didn’t want to steal her mother’s other car and drive off to destination unknown. She wanted to stay home, she wanted to see her friends, she wanted to hang out with her friends and laugh with them and gossip about the cute boys in movies. Instead, she ran away and drove through a couple states, ended up being attacked in St. Louis and eventually found by the X-Men and was given the option to go to school with people like her. Xavier’s was the first time she felt truly accepted, she was accepted by all of them because they were like her and she had friends who she wouldn’t have to hide her powers from. But even if it felt like home, it wasn’t. 

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~ A Few Days Later ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

It’s been a few days since the group went to Sokovia and reclaimed Loki’s scepter, and now, it was the day of whatever party Tony had decided to throw which Norah still had no idea why he was throwing it. She figured he was throwing it just so he had a good reason to drink. 

At the moment Norah was on the level that Tony’s lab was on, she was a bit bored and wanted to see if Tony wanted company and/or help in his lab. He’s let her help him before, though she never understood what he was teaching her or having her do, but Norah did as he told her usually and there was only one time she accidentally fried the wiring on whatever project he was doing because her mind wandered off on her. He kicked her out of his lab after that and banned her for almost a month – he was such a drama queen at times. 

“What are you working on Tony?” Norah asked suddenly from the glass doorway of Tony’s lab and saw the scepter in the middle of the room while both Bruce and Tony were looking at computer screens that were doing….something, analyzing she assumed. “Hey Bruce.” She said offhand to the man. 

The moment both heard her voice they jumped and turned around to look at her wildly, Tony strode forward. “What are you doing here” he questioned and did his best to block Norah’s line of vision so that she couldn’t see what he was doing around his lab at the moment, something he knew everyone else would not approve of him doing. “Shouldn’t you be playing dress up with Natasha? Or Thor? You and Thor could braid each other’s hair. I think he’s more of a French braid sort of person –“

Norah cut him off, “What are you doing Tony?” she questioned again with narrowed eyes, at first she hadn’t been suspicious of what he was doing but now…now she knew that Tony was up to something that he shouldn’t be doing but she wasn’t sure what it was exactly. 

“What?” Tony questioned as he gave her an innocent look. “What makes you think I’m doing anything?” he asked her as he avoided eye contact. 

At that Norah raised a brow, “You’re avoiding the question Tony.” She pointed out to him stubbornly and crossed her arms, waiting for him to answer her question.

Norah attempted to peak around Tony’s shoulder but he moved into her line of vision which made her scowl, she shuffled a bit to the side and then so did Tony, she tried to jump to see over his head and so did Tony. Yep, he was definitely hiding something. 

“Tony.” Norah said in a warning tone of voice. 

“It’s nothing,” Tony said defending himself and then holding out a bag of dried up fruit that he seemed to be obsessed with, but all Norah did was look at it blankly and then look up into Tony’s eyes expectantly. “Norah I promise it’s nothing bad. No need to worry that blonde head of yours.” He said to her and gently mussed up Norah’s hair in a loving fashion. 

Norah didn’t believe Tony for a second, the fact that he was trying to hide whatever he was doing from her view, the fact that he wouldn’t let her step one foot inside of the lab and the fact that he wasn’t bragging about whatever he was doing made Norah worry that whatever he was doing wasn’t going to be something good. 

“Do I have to call Pepper?” Norah questioned as she leaned up against the glass wall that encased Tony’s lab and then looked from him to Bruce and back again. “What are you and Bruce working on?”

Hearing that Tony groaned in frustration, “Why does everyone always threaten me with calling Pepper?” he questioned rhetorically with a roll of his eyes as if he has heard this one too many times which he more than likely has. 

“Because you do stupid shit that makes people have to threaten you with Pepper.” Nora pointed out with a shrug and stole some dried fruit out from Tony’s hands and popped them in her mouth. “Plus,” she added. “She makes you act like an adult for about five seconds of your day.” 

Tony scowled when she said that, “Shut up.” He responded in annoyance at how rght Norah was.

Once again Norah attempted to go further into the lab but once again Tony blocked her way and forced her back a few steps so that she couldn’t see anything that he and Bruce were doing, in response to that Norah raised her brow at Tony in annoyance and wanting to know what he was doing now. Norah was about to open her mouth and question Tony on what he was doing exactly and was going to try and make him tell her what he was doing but before she was able to do so Tony started talking.

“You ready for tonight?” Tony asked, trying to divert Norah’s attention from what he was doing to something else. “You do have a dress, right?”

At that Norah looked at him weirdly, “What are you, female?” she questioned with a shake of her head. “No Tony, I’m not going to the party.” She told him simply. 

When Tony heard Norah say that he gave her a shocked look at that admission unable to believe that she wouldn’t be going to a Stark party, “What?! Of course you’re going.” He said to her matter of a factly. 

“Uh, no I’m not.” Norah said to him, a stubborn look on her face. “I don’t like parties all that much. Especially one’s as big as you throw.” She said to him. “So you guys can all go and enjoy your party and the alcohol and I’ll stay up and away from the party and read or work out or something like that.”

Tony shook his head at her, “Nope! Not an option dear daughter.” He said to her as he crossed his arms stubbornly. “You’re going to the party and you’re going to like it. If I have to I will have Jarvis lock you out of every room so that the only place you can go is the party and I doubt you want to be wearing sweatpants and a tank top to a party.” He said to her. 

“No.” Norah said stubbornly, copying Tony’s pose and crossing her arms.

“Yes.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“No!”

“Yes!”

“NO!”

“YES!”

“Ugh!” Norah finally yelled and threw her arms up in frustration. “Fine. Jesus, fine I’ll go as long as you stop acting like a damn two year old. Geeze. How does Pepper put up with you?” she question rhetorically. “Just know that I am not happy about this.” She pointed out to him fiercely, a cold glint in her eyes as she spoke. 

Tony grinned at her, “Yes, yes I know.” He told her. “You hate this, you hate me, you hate parties, you hate being surrounded by tons of people. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ve heard it all. Free drinks though.” 

At that Norah gave a half shrug of acceptance, “The one good part.” She admitted reluctantly and then looked at Tony with a hopeful smile. “So, can I help?” she asked hoping that he said yes so that she could figure out what the hell he was doing that needed to be so secret. 

Usually Tony would love to get help from Norah even if she knew almost nothing about what he was doing, he was a big softie when it came to her – he’s joking told her that she ruined his rep by making him feel all fatherly towards her – but this…..this was something big, something that he couldn’t let her know about. Norah enjoyed causing a bit of mischief by helping Tony with things that Pepper would not fully approve of, like cars that went faster than Nascar cars (they had been yelled at for a week straight for trying them out) but this Ultron project was something that he knew Norah would not be for. Norah wanted the world to be a better place and that was one of the reasons why she was willing to help the Avengers once in a while with missions but she didn’t believe that the world would ever be completely without evil, without bad things happening, that it was human nature to cause problems, to have war to be selfish and sometimes those things cause bad things to happen. Norah thought that no matter what you do, how much good you try do to in the world, how safe you try and make the world it will always have bad and evil things in it and from that people like SHIELD and the Avengers come to be. People who want to help others. 

“No!” Tony said a bit too quickly which confirmed Norah’s thoughts that Tony was definitely working on something that the other’s would force him to stop doing, and Bruce was helping apparently. “Nope! Geniuses only allowed! Let the real masterminds work.” He said to her. “Now shoo Blinker. Go and get yourself ready for the party tonight. I know you females take forever to get ready.” He said as he waved his arms out in front of him and at Norah.

Norah rolled her eyes at Tony and how he was acting, “You know, if I didn’t know you better I would be feeling quite insulted at the moment, tears might even become a factor in this conversation.” She said to him but shrugged off his hurried words. “I’ll leave you and Bruce to it and let you guys do your….secret science shit.”

Shrugging to herself Norah took one last look at Tony and Bruce before she Blinked herself from her spot in the doorframe of Tony’s lab and up to the living room/kitchen area and into a stool at the kitchen Island making Clint jump a mile in his seat.

“Jesus Norah!” Clint said as he clutched at his heart. “Do you have to do that?” he questioned.

All Norah did in response to that was shrug, “Not my fault you get jumpy easily.” She said indifferently and grabbed a banana off of the bowl on the Island and started peeling it.

“Clint,” Natasha admonished in a teasing tone. “I thought you were a seasoned and skilled warrior. Not a skittish old man.” She joked as she leaned up against the counter besides Norah as she smiled teasingly at Clint who just gave both girls a dark look. 

“Shut up.” Clint said underneath his breath.


	6. Chapter 6

On many occasions Norah has told Tony repeatedly that she hated going to these parties of his; she hated how large they were, she hated how many people came to these parties of Tony’s, she hated trying to mingle with people that she didn’t know for shit, she hated being approached by random guys that usually only wanted to sleep with her and hoped that she would put a good word in with Tony for them. Even with all of those things Norah did love one thing about Tony’s parties – dressing up. Norah was thankful that the party was a semi-formal and so she wore a fun little cocktail flapper styled number that was a light peach color and had a crystal belt just under the bust and ended a few inches above her knees, along with the dress Norah was wearing a pair of seven inch glittery black pumps that made her almost five foot ten rather than her usual short stature of five foot four. Along with the dress and heels Norah was wearing a fire opal necklace that was hanging from a simple and delicate looking gold chair, a pair of feather drop earrings and adorning her wrists were three fresh water pearl bracelets that were in blue, green and yellow pastels. 

At the present moment Norah was sitting on a sleek black colored stood at the bar drinking her whiskey, bored out of her mind and wishing she could be anywhere but there. Norah knew that if she did indeed leave that either Tony would realize it and hunt her down and drag her back and make a whole show of it, Jarvis would tell Tony and then he would still drag her back or Jarvis would refuse to let her leave any of the level’s that the party was taking place on. So, rather than attempting to leave and having any number of those options happening Norah stayed glued to her seat at the bar and enjoyed all the alcohol that she could possibly want and hope that no more men try and approach her. Already she’s had to fend at least three men off all of whom were old enough to be her grandfather which was definitely not something she was into. Nope, so not happening!

“I thought you said that you weren’t coming.” Natasha stated simply, amused eyes looking over the outfit Norah chose and took a seat beside the younger girl as she sipped at her martini. “I remember something about hating big parties like this or something along those lines, right?”

Norah sighed a bit when Natasha said that, “Yeah, yeah. I know.” She said with a mocking smile on her face. “My self-appointed father decided that me not going was not acceptable and kept on bothering me like a five year old until I agreed to go to this damn thing.” She grumbled unhappily and glared at the liquor that was sitting on the counter in front of her as if it was at the heart of all of her problems.  
Natasha gave a small grin when she saw the anger filled glare on Norah’s face, “You know, most people would kill to get an invite to one of Stark’s parties. Wouldn’t doubt that they’d suffer through torture just to get a single toe in the door.” She pointed out the curly blonde haired girl that was besides her. 

“Yeah, well none of them have to live with an eccentric, egotistical, genius on an everyday basis.” Norah replied flatly as took a long and hard swig of her drink and enjoyed the burning sensation she got from it as it slid down her throat. “Like you said, I hate big parties like this where I know maybe three or so people at the most. This,” she said and gestured out towards where the many, many people that were invited were milling about on the three floors where the party was taking place. “This is Tony’s thing, Pepper’s thing even, but it is definitely not mine in any fashion. I only agreed to come after Tony mentioned alcohol.”

Hearing that Natasha nodded in appreciation; when Tony threw a party and bought alcohol he went all out, be it some sort of Fundraiser that Pepper made him do or for some party he wanted to throw for Stark Industries. Tony would make sure the bar was stocked with the common sort of alcohol and some of the lesser known or rather, the unusual sort of alcohol – imported Sake, French Wine made from the sweat and tears of virgin’s or something, aged Whiskey, Vodka made from the best of ingredients. No matter what it was or how hard it was to get, Tony would be certain they had it. 

“Good enough reason to come then I suppose.” Natasha said with a shrug and then turned to look around the room and took another sip of her martini and frowned, her drink could be a bit drier. 

The two sat in a comfortable silence for a while after that, each sipping on their drinks and looking out into the crowd of people, but as Natasha looked behind Norah and to the other side of the room she grinned widely. There, on the far side of the room was a young attractive man that had eyes on Norah and was making his way towards her. He was tall and was wearing a nice pair of dress pants, his violet colored button up shirt with the top two buttons undone and the sleeves rolled up to his forearms and overtop of his shirt was a charcoal grey vest top. The man had slightly tanned skin, dark brown hair slicked back fashionably and seemed to have quite a bit of muscle to him but not so much where he looked like he belonged in a muscle man competition. 

“Looks like you caught someone’s eye Norah.” Natasha said with a sly grin on her face as she eyed the man that was making his way towards where she and Norah were sitting. “So I think it’s about time I go and do that mingling thing that most normal people tend to do.”  
At that Norah suddenly got a wide eyed look and stealthily turned and spied the man that Natasha was talking about and then quickly turned back to the red-headed friend of hers and looked at her with panic, under no circumstances did she want to be left alone with the wolves and this well-dressed man definitely had a wolfish look to him.

“What?! No!” Norah said and grasped Natasha’s arm desperately. “You’re not leaving me with him. I don’t know him. He could be some crazed axe murderer whose plan is to lure me into a false sense of security and the moment I feel safe he’s going to pull an axe or a machete out and start chopping me up into itty bitty pieces or something equally as horrible as that.” She said to Natasha dramatically with wide eyes. 

When Natasha heard Norah say that she couldn’t help but shake her head at her unbelievably, “Norah you’ve been watching one too many horror movies I think. An axe murderer, really?” she questioned rhetorically and then glanced over Norah’s shoulder and smiled. “You do know that going to parties like this is a way that most other people use to get to know other people of the opposite sex, this is also how young people such as yourself end up getting dates and going to fancy Italian restaurants.” She pointed out to her. 

“Natasha.” Norah said darkly to her friend. “I don’t need you to try and set me up with random guys, especially one’s that come to these sort of parties.” She said gesturing around the room, sure there were probably some decent guys at these parties but for the most part the people tended to lean towards the greedy side of things. “I get you trying to get Steve a date, he hasn’t had a date in seventy some years…if ever. But I don’t need your help in the relationship department.” She said with a huff and then crossed her arms a bit childishly.

“Really? Is that so?” Natasha questioned knowingly. “If that’s true why haven’t you gone on a date in over a year?” she asked with raised brows. 

“That’s beside the point.” Norah sulked at her. “I….I’m picky, you know that. I just haven’t found anyone who has piqued my interest.” She said defensively and took another gulp of her whiskey – god, she really didn’t want to be here right now if Natasha was now trying to set her up with random guys at an event of Tony’s.

Natasha just grinned at Norah mischievously, “Well now’s your chance to figure out if he pique’s your interest or not.” She said and then gracefully rose from her seat at the bar and then glided across the floor as if she owned the place and went to mingle with the other party goers. 

When Natasha left all Norah did was sulk in place and dread the man sitting down next to her which she definitely knew was going to be happening, he was walking with a purpose and no man walked like that just to get a drink from a bar. No, men walked like that when they had their eye on a prize.

Norah has dated on and off, she’s had flings with a couple guys before, she’s had one night stands (Tony and Pepper will never find out about those) and she’s had friend’s with benefits sort of relationship with a guy named Sebastian from University, but she’s never dated seriously and as far as Norah is concerned the whole dating thing is overrated. Like she had told Natasha, no one has really piqued her interest enough to want to do anything more than casual dating. Of course she didn’t want to be alone for the rest of her life and become the weird crazy cat lady or crazy dog lady, she wanted to find someone that she wanted to wake up to every morning, she wanted someone to share things with, someone that would be playful along with her, someone who would love her for the silly faces she liked to make, someone who would listen to her go off on a tangent about whatever book she’s reading and how fascinating she found it, she wanted to find someone that she could see herself with in the long one but no one has fit that bill as of yet. Besides, the whole being a Mutant thing makes things a bit complicating. 

“Hello.” The deep suave voice of the dark haired man said from besides Norah as he finally reached her side and slid into the seat that was next to her, the seat that Natasha had vacated not minutes beforehand. “I’m Jesse Seymour.” He said to her and extended his hand towards her in a friendly sort of gesture. “I’ve seen you around these parties before but haven’t had the honor of meeting you or learning your name.” he said and gave Norah a curious smile and almost blinded her with how white his teeth were – they were so not real, no teeth were that white naturally. 

Reluctantly Norah gave out her name, “Norah Sjoholm.” She responded simply and hesitantly put her hand in his expecting to give a quick shake but before she had the chance to do just that Jesse lifted her hand and gave a kiss to the back of it while looking up into her dark eyes with stormy grey ones in a charming fashion.

It was when he heard her name that he took on a look of recognition, “Tony Stark’s adopted daughter.” He realized, his eyes brightening as he released Norah’s pale hand and grinned at her. “May I say that it is a pleasure to meet you and that you look beyond stunning tonight.” He said laying his charm on thick and then turned and waved for the bartender to come over to where he and Norah were seated. 

“Thanks.” Norah said with disinterest as she forced a smile on her face and begged all the gods that existed that this guy…Jesse, would leave her the hell alone and let her drink the night away until Tony, Thor or Steve had to carry her back to her room because she couldn’t sit up straight let alone attempt to walk.

It was then, after meeting Jesse Seymour, that Norah experienced one of the most, dreadful, boring and painful forty-five minutes of her life and she has suffered through lectures with professors who’ve been incredibly monotonous and didn’t really care about what they were teaching to their students. Norah thought those classes were pure torture and were boring to try and suffer through but boy was she wrong at that, this man….Jesse, god was he boring. He may look pretty with that dark hair of his and stormy grey eyes and any sane girl would jump at the chance to grab him up especially since he had a great paying job, had a condo in downtown Manhattan but geeze, he killed the conversation. He talked about work, he talked about the gym he went too and all of the ‘fat’ people that went there and ruined the atmosphere, he talked about his high schools years at the unbelievably expensive private school he went to, he talked about his life of privilege, he talked about himself a lot and talked about wanting to move up in the world which Norah took as him wanting to work for Tony eventually. He asked about Tony, about her life with him and being his daughter, he asked about the Avengers and missions they’ve gone on which Norah flat out refused to tell him about. Norah would almost prefer a lecture from Tony about Chemistry rather than talking to this guy, if she wanted to talk to an egotistical man at the moment she’d go find Tony and talk to him instead, at least he was amusing egotistical asshole. 

Finally, after suffering much longer than Norah thought she would be able to, she spotted someone that she knew and someone that would save her from this horrible social situation – she’d been attempting to look for an escape without coming off as a bitch but nothing presented itself. But now, now Bruce was walking into the room by himself and looked to be headed somewhat near where Norah was being tortured…chatted to by Jesse.

“BRUCE!” Norah all but yelled across the room to the older man and waved excitedly with a big smile on her face and probably looked a tad bit crazed at the moment, but oh well, the important thing was that she got his attention and he was now walking towards her.

Giving Norah an odd look Bruce made his way over towards the bar where Norah was seated along with a man he’s never seen before, he gave a small smile when he got in earshot of the two young people. “Norah, hello. Are you en-“

Before Bruce had a chance to finish his sentence Norah interrupted him, “I know you’ve probably been looking all over for me but I got a bit sidetracked. I’m really, really sorry Bruce. I didn’t mean to.” She said to him with a fake smile plastered across her face as she looked at him pleadingly, hoping against hope that he’d be able to get the hint that she was trying to get across to him and that he would just go along with it.

Taking a look at Bruce, Norah internally groaned when she saw the utterly confused and unsure look that he had on his face after she said that he had been looking for her. It seems that even incredibly smart people such as Bruce were prone to not understanding social que’s and hints that Norah was trying to lay at his feet obviously. 

Bruce furrowed his brow and looked at Norah in confusion, he was lost as to what the girl wanted and what she was talking about and wondered for a moment if Tony and Norah switched bodies/personalities. “Helping me?” he questioned as he cocked his head to the side a bit, similar looking to a dog. “With wha-“

“Remember.” Norah said imploringly as she looked intently into his eyes “You have a pile of documents that you need to be translated that that one scientist sent over from….what country was it again?” she asked, feigning confusion and trying to convey to Bruce that he needed to get her out of there and away from this guy. 

For a moment all Bruce did was look at Norah blankly, genuinely confused as to what she was trying to say to him and just was uncertain as to what he was supposed to say. Norah was talking and looking at him as if she believed, truly believed that there were some documents from a foreign scientist that needed to be translated but for the most part foreign scientist can read and write in English just as good, if not better than most American’s. After staring at her for a while it finally clicked with him, Norah knew that he had nothing to translate she just needed a reason to get out of the situation with this guy that was sitting beside her.

“OH!” Bruce said suddenly. “Yes, him. The guy from Romania.” He said with a fake half-smile on his face which was barely believable but thankfully Jesse couldn’t really tell. “You do speak Romanian, don’t you?”

Norah responded with a smile, “Of course I do. What sort of linguist would I be if I didn’t know at least a few eastern European languages?” she questioned with a tone of arrogance. “Let’s go and look at those documents of yours, before you know it that deadline of yours will be here.” She said to him cheerfully as she hopped off of the barstool, grabbed her drink (a sex on the beach this time) and then looked towards Jesse who looked a bit hurt that she was leaving him to go with the middle-aged doctor. “Oh, sorry Mr. Seymour but duty calls.” She said with a false sympathetic look and then looped her arm through Bruce’s and then hurriedly weaved herself and Bruce through the crowds of people and towards somewhere that was far away from Jesse Seymour who hopefully didn’t intend of going to search her out later in the night.

Once Norah felt as if they were far enough away that the chance of Jesse finding them was slim to none, she let go of Bruce’s arm and turned towards him with a wide, thankfully smile and leapt at him and gave him a bear hug in thanks. “Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!” Norah repeated like a mantra to the man as she squeezed him tightly in a hug once again before releasing him. “Seriously, thank you so much Bruce! I thought I was going to be stuck talking to that guy until Tony kicked everyone out. God, it was horrible. If I had to hear about his private school that cost ten thousand dollars or whatever a year to attend, or about his stupid swim meets or anything else again I was about to get violent. Seriously, I was picturing gouging his eyes out with a rusted metal spork and was contemplating the best plan of attack.” She told him and gave a wry smile. 

Bruce looked down at Norah gently, he cared about Norah and not just because she was the youngest in the group and Tony’s ‘daughter’ as he pointed out often, especially when men showed an interest to her. She was a nice girl, she’s had a bit of a hard life because of being a Mutant and left her family because of them not being able to accept her being one and somehow at the age of fifteen was able to survive and make it in the world. She became a stronger person because of what she has seen, what she has done and what she has been through. Bruce appreciates that in a person.

“So,” Bruce said as he and Norah walked slowly through the crowds of people. “He seemed attractive.” He said awkwardly, unsure how to talk to a girl Norah’s age about guys….it was weird. “Why did you need to be saved from him?” he questioned. 

Norah gave a heavy sigh as she maneuvered herself around a rather tall statuesque woman. “There is no doubt that he was attractive, yay! Good for him. I don’t really give a shit if he’s attractive or has thousands and thousands of dollars and three vacation houses across Europe and the Bahamas. I really don’t care.” Norah said to him with a scowl on her face. “I know most women want to marry into a good family with money, or at least date a moderately well off man but I don’t care. I don’t want to be bored to death and listen to someone blather on about themselves. I mean he’s one dimensional.” 

At that Bruce gave Norah a confused look, “One dimensional?” he asked curiously and waited for her to elaborate.

“No personality.” She said to him simply and shook her head. “I get that Natasha was trying to set me up, I really do. She wants me to find someone or at least try dating again after not going out on a date in almost a year or whatever but I’m not going to just date someone to simply date. I’m picky.” She said and ran her hands through her thick and wild curly blonde hair – she’s gotten her fingers stuck in her own hair a few times, those weren’t proud moments of her life.

“I just was curious. I’m not going to force you to go over there and talk with him until he asks you on a date.” Bruce said as he raised his hands in a peaceful gesture. “The other guy makes things hard when it comes to relationships and dating. I don’t really date because of him.” He said quietly as he looked around them to be certain no one was listening to their conversation. 

“Someday Bruce,” Norah told him as she lightly patted him on the shoulder. “Someday you’ll find someone that won’t care and that will make you not fear dating.” She told him with confidence, Bruce was a soft man who was caring and worried like a mother at times but had a slight…Green Man problem, he deserved someone. 

After that both Norah and Bruce walked around the party making small talk and Bruce asking Norah what she wanted to do now that she was done with University – now that she was an actual adult with a degree. Norah sniggered at that and gave a shrug, she thought about moving out of the tower and getting her own place rather than living with Tony, Pepper and everyone else but Norah would miss it too much, she’s been living with or around other people for so many years that she wasn’t sure if she’d be able to sleep if she did get her own place. Eventually Norah would, but for now living at the tower with everyone else was home for her.

Both Norah and Bruce went their separate ways after talking for a bit, Bruce going to talk to some scientists that he spied and Norah going off to find someone else that she knew to go and bother for a while and she also went off to go and find another alcoholic drink, something that was fruity and the epitome of a girlie drink.

“You’d think there’d be someone that wasn’t boring here.” Norah muttered to herself as she sipped at the straw that was sticking out of her drink, a little umbrella adorned it as well. 

“Don’t tell me you’re bored at a Stark Party.” A voice said suddenly from behind Norah making her jump in spot from fright. 

“Don’t let Tony hear you say that.” The voice of Steve said from behind her as well.

Turning Norah looked at both Steve and Sam and put a hand on her hip as she jutted it out a bit, a sign of annoyance. “What the hell guys. Give me a heart attack why don’t you two.” She said as she looked from Steve to Sam admonishingly. “I have the urge to hit you both upside the head but these heels are already a bit iffy.” She said and pointed down to the adorable high heels she was wearing. 

Hearing that Steve looked down at the shoes Norah was wearing and shook his head not being able to understand the fab of high heels like the ones that Norah and Natasha seemed to enjoy wearing. “I don’t understand you dames and high heels that hurt your feet. Back in the day no gal would wear shoes that were that high.” He said as he looked back up into Norah’s eyes. 

“Steve,” Norah said as she looked at him softly. “Beauty is pain.” She explained to him simply with a shrug of her shoulders at why she and a good majority of other women wear heels that hurt them. 

“Females.” Sam said with a shake of his head and looked at Steve with a knowing look, understanding the confusion that women brought out in men. 

Slowly the trio talked and made their way away from the crowd and headed up a set of stairs to the next level that the party was also taking place on; the first floor was the more crowded floor because it had three bars and food laid out for the guests to snack from whenever they liked, it was also harder to hear anyone talk let alone hear yourself think on that level. 

“So,” Norah said as they ended up at a balcony that overlooked the first floor of the party. “How goes the search?” she questioned with genuine interest in how it was going for Steve and Sam. 

Norah read Bucky’s file – she actually collected all the files leaked about him online and put them on an encrypted flash drive – she knew what the Russian’s had done to him, what Hydra had done to him. That they experimented on the guy, they tortured him, beat him, barely gave him enough sustenance to survive, punished him if he didn’t do as he was told, wiped his memory repeatedly especially when he started to remember things that they didn’t want him remembering…..like Steve, they forced him to kill people without remorse. From what Norah has learned from Googling him and from talking with Steve, Bucky would have never done any of these things if he had been in his right mind and knew who he was he would have never even dreamed of doing a majority of the things that Hydra forced him to do. Norah felt bad and hoped that Steve and Sam were able to find him soon so that he could get the proper help that he deserves. No one should be forced to live a life like he had – being frozen, being forced to kill, tortured and having their memory wiped so that they wouldn’t even know their own name.

“Could be better.” Steve answered with a downcast expression as he rubbed at his forehead; it killed him that he was unable to find Bucky, to find his long lost best friend who he thought died decades ago. “We get close to finding him and then he manages to escape before we have a chance to confront him.” He explained.

Sam nodded along with what Steve said, “Yeah, we get close and then bam,” he said throwing his hands up in the air animatedly. “He’s gone. Like a ghost in the wind.” He said disappointed that they’ve been searching for months without much to show for their effort. “Those bastards from Hydra trained him well if he is able to evade us and Stark’s tech without problem and only leaving a breadcrumb of clues on where he might be.” He bemoaned in annoyance.

Norah gave them a sympathetic look, “Where was the last place you guys traced him to?” she questioned.

“Seattle.” Steve said simply a frown gracing his face. “I thought he might have come up here to New York, to go back to Brooklyn since that’s where we’re originally from.” He explained. “That maybe he’d come back here so that he can try and remember who he was.” 

“What’s in Seattle?” Norah questioned.

Both Sam and Steve shrugged, Sam responding to her question. “See, that’s the thing we’re trying to understand. Even with all the research we can do we can’t find any reason for him to be there, there weren’t any Hydra bases there where he might have been taken to or anything.” Sam said to her as he took a swig of his beer bottle.

“It’s random.” Steve said quietly with a downcast expression. 

At that Norah patted Steve on his rather large bicep in a comforting way, hoping that both Steve and Sam would be able to find Bucky and that they’d be able to convince him to come back to the tower so that he could get the help he needed. He didn’t need to be alone to figure out things, to recover from what he experienced. In fact, he needed a support system, people who wouldn’t judge him for what he did and people who would help him in any way that he needed. 

“I don’t care what Tony says but,” Norah said suddenly as she looked up at Steve with a determined expression on her face showing that she wasn’t going to take no as an answer. “I want to help you if you need me to. I want to help you find your friend. Besides,” she said with a small smirk on her face. “If he does try and hurt me I can get away without a problem unlike the two of you.” She pointed out matter of a factly. 

Steve looked at her gratefully, ecstatic to hear that Norah was willing to help Steve when there wasn’t anything for her to gain from doing so. “Thank you Norah. I appreciate that, I really do. But I hope that it won’t have to come to that. I want to find Bucky but I don’t want to force him to come to me, he’s been forced into enough over the last seventy years.” He ended with a dark look in his eyes at recalling what Hydra has done to his friend.   
~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

The party had finally ended an hour or so ago and now everyone; Tony, Steve, Clint, Bruce, Thor, Natasha, Helen, Maria, Norah and Rhodey were all sitting around on the couches and eating Chinese takeout while relaxing from the excitement of going to one of Tony’s parties and were joking around with one and another. This was the kind of party Norah preferred, a small group of people just hanging out, laughing and messing around while having food and some alcohol. 

“It’s a trick.” Clint said as he gestured towards Mjolnir, Thor’s hammer that was sitting on top of the glass table, while twirling a pair of chopsticks in his hands. 

At that Thor gave a laugh and shook his head, “Oh no, it’s much more than that.” He stated in his deep tone of voice. 

Clint rolled his eyes and began talking mockingly in a deep tone of voice, “He who shall ever be worthy shall haveth the power.” He ended making the other’s laugh at his attempt at sounding like he was from a different time. “Whatever man, it’s a trick.” He said reverting back to his usual tone of voice. 

“Please,” Thor said as he gestured towards Mjolnir. “Be my guest.” He said with a knowing grin on his face, knowing without a doubt that none of his friends would be able to lift Mjolnir even an inch. 

Clint looked at Thor surprised, “Really?” he asked to be certain that Thor wasn’t just messing with him, he has been known to do that once in a while. 

“Yeah.” Thor said with an encouraging nod and a small smirk on his face. 

Clint got up without having to be told twice and slowly made his way to the glass table and on the side that Mjolnir was on while ignoring the quips and jeers that the other’s were sending. 

“Clint,” Tony began jokingly as he began to watch the scene in front of him unfold. “You’ve had a tough week, we won’t hold it against you if you can’t get it up.” He ended with a small laugh.

Norah gave a small scoff at what was happening; she’s read books on Norse mythology and knew that there was no way in hell that anyone but Thor would be able to lift Mjolnir….usually. Though Norah kinda had an urge to go hunt her phone down so that she could record Clint attempting to lift Mjolnir, if there was a time in the future when she was having a bad day and needed a pick me up she could pull up this video on her phone and laugh. Sadly her phone was up in her room; maybe Jarvis could download it to her phone for her. 

“He’s so going to fail horrendously.” Norah whispered to Natasha who she was sitting beside on the small couch they were both on. “He’s going to crash and burn.” She said with a slight smirk on her face and took a drink of her hard cider that was in her hands at the moment.   
Natasha nodded her agreement at that, “Definitely.” She said to her. “He’s seen this before and knows that no one but Thor can lift the hammer. But he’s gotta try it of course.”

“Men.” Norah scoffed and shook her head a she looked back at Clint and waited for him to attempt to lift it and fail horribly at doing so. 

Clint looked over at Thor, “I have seen this before.” He said and then turned his attention back to the hammer and looked at it with determination before he wrapped his hand around the handle of it and pulled with all of his might, he tried to move around to see if a different angle would help but all he did was strain his muscles a bit. “I still don’t know how you do it.” He said with an unbelievable laugh and shook his head.

“Smell the silent judgement.” Tony said as he took a sip of his beer and grinned widely at Clint ho was making his way back to his seat beside Maria Hill. 

At that Clint waved towards the hammer, “Please stark, by all means.” He said to him.

Tony being Tony, and not being able to say no to anyone who tried to challenge him be it at engineering, racing or lifting Thor’s hammer, he got up from his seat and arrogantly made his way over to the hammer acting as if he truly believed he was going to be lifting the hammer from the table it sat on.

“Uh oh.” Hill said.

“You know I’m not one to shrink from an honest challenge. It’s physics.” Tony said as if it was easy as pie and then looped the leather strap onto his wrist and then grasped the handle tightly. “So if I lift it I then rule Asgard, right?” he questioned as he looked over at Thor.

Thor nodded at his question, “Yes, of course.”

“Thor!” Norah admonished making the blonde haired god look at her in confusion. “Don’t tell him that, do you know what he would do to Asgard if he was ruler of it? He’d all but burn it to the ground in three day’s straight.” She said to him.

At that Tony looked at his daughter, “Hey! You’re supposed to be on my side. What the hell kid.” He said with a pout on his lips looking very much like a small child would when they are told they can’t have candy before having dinner. “Some child of mine you are.” He grumbled a bit. 

Norah just grinned widely at him and shrugged, “Hey, I know you too well now.” She explained to him simply. “You’ll tear Asgard a part and have giant Orgies or something like that.”

Tony just rolled his eyes at Norah and then turned his attention back to the matter at hand, lifting Mjolnir from the table. “I will be re-instituting Prima Nocta.” He said and then tried to lift the hammer and gave a slight groan of pain and tried a few more pulls of the hammer before letting go and looking at it with determination. “I’ll be right back.” He said and then left the living room for a brief moment.   
Apparently Tony decided that since he couldn’t lift Mjolnir with his own two bare hands that he was going to use alternate methods to do so and decided to use his detachable Iron Man arm to do it for him, but….well it wasn’t really much use to him in the end. Even with the help of Rhodey with his almost identical arm they were unable to lift the hammer and from the sounds of it, it sounded as if Tony blew a fuse in the arm or some sort of electronics in his Iron Man arm from trying to lift the hammer. When Norah heard the tell-tale sizzling and crackles from the arm she couldn’t help but laugh a bit at Tony’s misfortune, he sent her an angry glare when she laughed but she just smiled innocently at him in return. It served him right, it was Tony and the other’s that were trying to lift a magical object from Asgard, an object that only Thor was able to lift. 

“Come on Steve, it’s your turn!” Norah cheered as she looked over at the man out of time and grinned widely at him encouragingly. “You know you want to! Shoe these asshole’s how it’s done!” she said to him and ignored the indignant ‘heys’ that were throw at her. 

When Norah said that Maria looked over at Steve with feigned alarm, “Steve! She said a bad language word.” She said in a false shock tone of voice. 

Steve sighed heavily and then glanced over at Tony in annoyance, “Did you tell everyone about that?” he questioned rhetorically and shook his head before he stood up and approached the hammer. 

“Come on Cap!” Tony cheered on.

Norah sat up a bit and smiled, “Come on Steve, you can do it!” she cheered, if anyone was going to lift Mjolnir it would be Steve, he’s a boy scout at heart. 

Tony looked over at Norah with a slightly hurt look, “What? You cheer on Capsicle here but you didn’t cheer me on? How can you call yourself my daughter?” he questioned and then pretended to sob into Bruce’s shirt. 

“Like you need anyone to cheer you on, you’re arrogant enough to not need it.” Norah stated with a roll of her eyes. “Besides, if Pepper’s not here who else is going to take you down a peg or two?” she asked with a smirk on her face. “Now shut up, I wanna see this.”

“It’s a harsh world Stark.” Natasha said with a laugh at the slight put out expression that was on Tony’s face when Norah told him to shut up.  
Grumbling, Tony turned his attention to Steve and watched as the capsicle did his best to lift the hammer from the coffee table that it was sitting on. Steve tried a few times to pull the thing up and off of the table but nothing came to fruition so he gave a small ‘what can you do’ sort of smile and then sat back down on the couch, Bruce also tried to lift Mjolnir but all he did was stumble back a bit and embarrass himself a bit by making ‘argggh’ kind of sound when he ended up letting it go. 

“Natasha, Norah.” Bruce said as he looked at the two females in the room and gestured towards the hammer. 

At that Natasha shook her head in the negative, “Oh no, no that’s not something I need answered.” She said to them all and took a small sip of her bottle of beer. 

“Norah,” Clint said looking into the younger girls dark eyes with a playful smile. “Come on, you try.” 

Tony nodded his agreement at that statement, “Yeah, come on mini me. Go and show us how it’s done.” He urged, but Norah was pretty certain he more so wanted to see her fail like she saw him fail and make fun of her in return as well.

At that Norah shook her head, her curls flying around her face. “Nope. Not happening guys. Sorry, not sorry.” She told them in an unsympathetic tone of voice. “I’m not going to try and lift Mjolnir in these heels. I’d end up killing myself or I’d fall on my ass and break my leg or something of equal importance.” She told them all with a slight shrug of her shoulders. 

“Oh, come on Norah! Please! Please! Please!” Tony begged her with a childish look in his eyes and clasped his hands in a begging fashion. “I wanna see you beat everyone.” 

“No.” Norah said simply and shook her head at him, wondering how he managed to snag someone like Pepper when he acted like such a child and an asshole at times. “Not going to happen.”

Instead of responding, Tony looked over at the hammer with a glower on his face. “It’s rigged.” He said as he leaned up against the bar. 

Rhodey nodded his agreement, “You bet your ass it is.”

“Like a security code or something.” Tony pipped up. “He who shall ever be holding Thor’s finger print is the literal translation.” 

Thor smiled at the others in amusement at them attempting to lift Mjolnir and then approached his hammer, “Yes, well that’s a very, very interesting theory. But I have a simpler one.” He said as he grasped Mjolnir with ease and lifted it up and off of the table as if it weighed as heavy as a feather and flipped it up and in the air before catching it in his hand. “You all are not worthy.” He answered simply. 

The moment those words escaped Thor’s mouth the majority of everyone in the room began to protest what he said about them all not being worthy of carrying Mjolnir, but before they could say much of anything at all there was a sudden loud and high pitched screech sound that seemed to echo throughout the room making everyone cringe in pain and cover their ears for a few moments until the noise passed. 

“What in the hell was that?” Rhodey questioned wincing a bit as his ears recovered from the sudden painful sound.

Norah stood up from her spot on the couch and looked around the room, trying to see what might have made that sound – sometimes Tony’s projects got out of hand, it happened. Tony was a genius who couldn’t stay still doing nothing for more than five seconds so he did projects and made things for the Avenger’s use…..a few have gotten out of control and almost became a problem and that was what Norah was assuming happened and what made that noise.

“Tony?” Norah questioned softly, as she looked across the room carefully waiting for some weird invention of Tony’s to come out from nowhere.

Instead of answering her though Tony looked down at his clear mini-tablet and was pressing all sorts of buttons while trying to figure out what was making that noise. Tony didn’t have a clue what was making that noise, the only project or inventions that he’s been working on as of late was Ultron and there was no way in hell that whatever was doing this was Ultron. 

Suddenly, one of Tony’s Iron Legion suits that looked as if it had gotten a bit mangled while in Sokovia came forward, limping towards where the Avengers, Norah, Hellen Cho and Maria Hill were standing and looking around curiously. 

“Worthy.” The dark voice breathed as it looked out at everyone and seemed to be studying each and every single one of them. “No, how can you be worthy. You’re all killers.” He said waving his hand out at them and then seemed to let his eyes rest on Norah.

When Norah saw that this….thing or whatever it was had its gaze fixed on her all she did was stand up a bit taller, raise her hands unnoticeably in a defensive fashion in case he/it decided to attack them suddenly. She really wasn’t in the mood to die by some possessed/crazy suit of Tony’s, it wasn’t her thing. If this thing didn’t have its gaze transfixed on Norah and seemed to be taking in every inch of her, she would probably have looked over to Tony with an icy glare and demand to know what he and Bruce have been doing in that lab of his and ask him what the fuck he thought he was doing. But now was not exactly the time for that, priorities. 

“You,” the mangled suit said as it pointed towards Norah who tried to control herself but she shrunk back just a bit. “You aren’t like them, you’re not a killer.” He said and cocked his metal head a bit to the side. 

Steve took a step forward so that he was standing beside Norah and looked at the possessed suit with fierce looking eyes; he knew that this didn’t just suddenly happen, that this thing didn’t suddenly come into existence. Stark had something to do about this mangled metal suit coming to life, there was no doubt about that. 

“Stark.” Steve said simply without taking his eyes off of the suit. 

Tony knew what Steve wanted and pressed a few buttons on his tablet while speaking, “Jarvis.” He said expectantly and waited for the British voice of his AI to come through and to tell him he was taking care of whatever was happening to the suit. “Jarivs? Jarvis? Where are you buddy?”

“I’m sorry,” The deep voice of the suit said and seemed to rub as its temples. “I was asleep. Dreaming.” 

Looking at the suit worriedly Tony ignored the thing and continued trying to contact Jarvis who seemed to not be answering him at the moment, “Jarvis. Reboot. We got a buggy suit.” He said as he looked down at his see-through mini-tablet.

“I was tanged,” the suit said as it seemed to walk/limp across the floor in front of them. “In strings.”

Everyone watched the suit carefully and cautiously, it didn’t take a genius to realize that it wouldn’t take much of anything to set this suit off and for it to start attacking them all without any hesitation. They needed to be careful with what they did and what they said to this thing especially if they wanted to figure out what it wanted.

“Had to kill the other guy. He was a good guy.” The suit said sounding a bit sympathetic that he was forced to do that.

“You killed someone?” Steve questioned as he stepped a bit closer to the suit of metal, needing to know who he killed.

When Steve had stepped away from Norah and towards the suit of armor Thor had taken up his spot and stepped a bit in front of Norah in a protective manner, when he did that Norah glared at his back in annoyance and pursed her lips. As much as she wanted to give Thor a piece of her mind and his gallantry actions – she wasn’t a damsel in distress damn it – but they kind of had a possessed Iron Legion suit to deal with.

“Wouldn’t have been my first call.” The suit said and seemed to sigh a bit. “But down in the real world we’re faced with ugly choices.”  
“Who sent you?” Thor demanded of the metal suit, itching to grab his hammer at the moment. 

Instead of answering the suit turned so that he was facing them head on and then within moments the voice of Tony came out from his body, “I see a suit of armor around the world.” The recording of Tony’s voice said.

“Ultron.” Bruce said in shock at his realization. 

“In the flesh,” Ultron said proudly but then looked down at himself and shrugged a bit. “Or no, not yet. Not this Christmas. But I’m ready.” He said with determination laced in his voice. 

While Ultron had been talking, the others had silently and inconspicuously got their weapons at the ready that they had on their person which really only consisted of Maria and Natasha. It’s not like any of them really expected to be attacked while at Stark tower by something that Tony and Bruce created but by the looks of it shit is about to hit the fan. 

“I’m on a mission.” Ultron stated.

Natasha looked at Ultron with guarded eyes, “What mission?” she asked curiously. 

Ultron answered without hesitation, “Peace of our time.” He said to her simply and matter of fact. 

The moment those words left Ultron, two of Tony’s Iron Legion suits burst out through the wall behind Ultron and to the side of him and immediately headed towards where the Avengers, Hellen, Norah and Maria were standing. Thor took action immediately and hit one of them; the suits hit a few of the others as well. Tony got knocked down and slid a across the floor, Steve was thrown down through a glass window and onto the balcony and Norah and Hellen both got knocked into the piano that was in the room.

Groaning a bit Norah quickly slipped her high heels off and threw them away from her before she looked around the piano and saw that the majority of her friends and family were fighting off Ultron and the Iron Legion which Ultron seemed to have gotten control of somehow. 

Taking a deep courageous breath Norah left Hellen’s side from behind the grand piano and crawled her way through the fighting and hoped to make it to a vantage point where she would be able to see all that was happening in the room so that she could try and blow a few of the suits up, luck didn’t seem to be on Norah’s side though because as soon as she made it about five or so feet she was lifted up and off of the ground by Ultron who was gripping onto her side and back of her neck tightly. There were so going to be bruises the next morning. 

“You better not fuck up my dress,” Norah said as she glared up at Ultron defiantly. “I like this dress even if it is kind of pink which isn’t exactly on my top ten favorite colors.” She told him and wished that she could move enough to cross her arms in annoyance. 

Ultron looked at her curiously for a few moments before he gave a laugh and leaned in close to her, “You’re a feisty one, aren’t you?” he questioned.

“My best and worst quality. What can I say.” Norah said with a smirk on her face.

Okay, so being sarcastic and feisty to a crazy robot thing that Tony and Bruce created was probably a bad idea, an incredibly bad idea but sometimes Norah just couldn’t help herself and it was sort of her go to defense mechanism when she was freaked out and scared out of her mind. But, doing so to murder crazy robots probably was not the sort of situation to do that in, when facing regular people it was a bit safer but robots that are trying to kill you and your family isn’t the idea situation for that.

“You know,” Ultron said as he looked down at the small blonde haired female that he had in his grasp. “I like you. I don’t think I like many people, especially one’s associated with the Avengers and Tony Stark. But you amuse me. And you haven’t killed anyone before.” He told her offhand, acting as if they were talking about the weather or what movie they wanted to go to. “You were taken in by Stark, he helped you when you were vulnerable and treated you like a daughter and warped your mind into thinking that he and the rest of the Avengers were on the side of good. But they aren’t. Come with me and see what the side of good truly looks like.” 

Norah glared at him, “As fun as that sounds I’m gonna have to pass.” She told him.

“Why?” he asked curiously, seeming to genuinely want to know why she won’t go with him.

Norah scoffed at him, “Why? Why am I refusing to join you?” she questioned him with an unbelievable look at the fact that he couldn’t understand why she wouldn’t go with him. “I’d die before going with you and your little mission. They are my family. Tony is my father as far as I am concerned. We, the Avengers, are the good guys. We are there for people if we can be; we help people and do all that is in our power to protect those who can’t protect themselves. Sure, a lot of us have made mistakes and did things that we never wanted to do but we are making up for it. They’re my family and they come before anyone else, no matter what.” 

“It’s too bad you think that way.” Ultron said as he squeezed the hand that was around her neck a bit tighter. “You would have been a good ally to have, I thi-“

Before Ultron had the chance to finish his sentence or squeeze Norah’s neck any tighter, Steve suddenly came out of nowhere and attacked Ultron with his shield which surprised Ultron enough that he stumbled back and released Norah from the hold he had on her. Norah sent Steve an irritated look at the fact that he decided to come in and play hero before she had the chance to use her powers on Ultron, she knew he said that it was going to be hard for him to treat her like the adult she was but seriously, they only had that talk two or three days ago he shouldn’t have forgotten it that easily. 

“That was dramatic,” Ultron said as they killed the last of the Iron Legion that he had taken control over and walked a bit away from everyone before beginning to talk once again. “I’m sorry. I know you mean well. You want to protect the world but you don’t want it to change. How is humanity saved if it’s not allowed to evolve? Like these,” he said as he grabbed one of the disassembled Iron Legion suits and squeezed the head of it so hard that the face plate flew off and sparks began coming from it and hitting his metal fingers. “These puppets,” he said as he threw the head of the suit away from him. “There is only one path to peace. The Avenger’s extinction.”

The moment Ultron had finished saying that, Thor, not wanting to listen to this thing talk anymore threw Mjolnir straight at Ultron and which resulted with him breaking into small bits and broken chunks of metal that had formerly resembled an Iron Legion suit. A bit of blue light still emanated from within the suit, the voice of Ultron sang one last little tune before the suit went dark. 

Steve turned and looked at Tony with a serious expression that meant he was not about to put up with anything at that moment in time, “We need to talk.” 

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

Rather than staying in her dress which looked the worse for wear – hopefully the stains and rips could be fixed, like she told Ultron, she loved this dress – Norah changed into a pair of washed out burgundy sweatpants and a black Misfits band shirt that was a tad bit too big for her and then slowly made her way down to where Tony’s lab was located at so that they could talk about what just happened in the tower.   
Norah understood that Tony wanted to protect people, that he wanted to keep people safe from the bad things in the world that most normal people didn’t have a chance and protecting themselves from, like the aliens that attacked. She knew that he had a few problems dealing with what happened and almost dying and now, part of dealing with what had happened was him creating something that would protect everyone from those sorts of things so that all they would have to worry about hurting or attacking them were other people.   
“Pepper is going to be pissed.” Norah said to herself already dreading when the woman came home and found out what happened and specifically what Tony did. 

As the elevator that she was in came to a stop Nora stepped out and then headed down a hallway and down two flights of stairs before she finally arrived at Tony’s lab, walking inside she saw that they were already talking about what had happened and what they were going to do now since Ultron escaped through the internet. Walking past the railing where Clint was leaning against, Norah walked down into the main part of the lab and looked at Tony in concern and wondered if he was still dealing with his near death experience from the battle of New York.

“Nukes?” Natasha questioned. “He said he wanted us dead.” She pointed out to the others.

Steve looked at the other’s, “He didn’t say dead. He said extinct.” he remarked, his eyes narrowing at the realization of what Ultron wanted to do. 

Clint spoke up then, “He also said that he killed somebody.” 

“There wasn’t anybody else in the building,” Maria said as she looked up from working on taking the glass that had embedded itself in her foot. 

Norah furrowed her brows in confusion, “Then who could he have been talking about?” she asked curiously, looking around to see if anyone else knew who it was that Ultron said that he had killed. 

Tony walked forward solemnly with his mini-tablet in his hands, “There was someone else here.” He said softly and then flicked his tablet out in front of him as a large yellow/gold hologram appeared in front of the group and looked as if it had either exploded or been scrambled into small pieces. 

It took a few moments for everyone to realize what it was that they were looking at, or rather who they were looking at, this yellow/gold colored orb of light was Jarvis. And now Jarvis had been killed by Jarvis because he was trying to help them, to protect them from Ultron.

“This is insane.” Bruce uttered as he ran his hands through his dark colored hair. 

Steve looked away from the damage that Ultron had done to Jarvis, “Jarvis was the first line of defense. He would have shut Ultron down, it would have made sense.” He reasoned. 

Bruce shook his head, “No, Ultron killed an assimilated Jarvis. This isn’t strategy, this is rigged.” He said in anger at what his and Tony’s creation did. 

Before Bruce could explain more, Thor suddenly stalked into the room and headed straight for Tony who had his back turned towards him but before he could turn and see who it was that was stalking towards him angrily Thor grasped him by the neck and lifted him up and pressed him harshly against the wall of the lab. 

“Hey! What the hell Thor!” Norah yelled as she approached the god who had her father figure pressed into the wall painfully, she may not be happy with what Tony did but she still loved him. “Let him go Thor!” she said and gave a futile push at Thor’s arms trying to get him to release her father. “THOR!” 

“It’s going around.” Clint muttered under his breath as he looked in on the scene in front of him.

Tony grabbed the arm of the hand that was wrapped around his neck and looked down at the god, “Come on, use your words buddy.” He said, his sarcastic and teasing personality not even hindering with the current situation. 

Thor looked at him with anger filled eyes, “I have more than enough words to describe you Stark.” He seethed at Tony as he narrowed his eyes at the arrogant and egotistical genius. 

Not being able to take seeing Thor’s rather unbelievably large hands wrapped around Tony’s throat which made it look like he was trying to choke the life out of him Norah stepped up and once again tried to push at Thor to get him to release Tony from his hold, sure she knew that she physically couldn’t take on Thor or make him move if he didn’t want to but it made her feel better to try rather than not doing anything. 

“Thor!” Norah hissed at him with a hostile expression on her face. “Let him go now Thor. He gets the point, you’re angry and you kinda hate him right now. Trust me,” she said with a dark smirk on her face. “Everyone has hated him at some point in time.” She told him. “Now, let my dad go now or I will use my power on you. I don’t care if you’re my friend and a god, I will use my power on you if I have to.” She threatened him fiercely, a dangerous look in her eyes.

For a moment, a single moment Thor actually feared for his life because of a small slip of a human girl. He’s seen what Norah can do, he’s seen those video’s that were taken of what she did with her power and he knew without a doubt that if Norah truly tried hard enough that she could use her power to kill people if she so chose. She could use her powers to tear a person a part from the inside out. After considering Norah for a moment, he knew that the blonde girl wouldn’t hesitate to attack anyone that hurt Tony or Pepper – her family.   
Steve seeing the impasse that both Norah and Thor were in decided to step in before either did something that they may regret, “Thor,” he said with an authoritative tone of voice. “The legion?” he questioned. 

Grudgingly Thor released Tony and let him stumble to the ground without remorse, “The trail went cold about one hundred miles out and it’s headed North. And it has the scepter. Now we have to retrieve it,” he said and paused for a moment and looked over at Tony in anger and frustration. “Again.”

Hellen looked over at the remains of the suits before turning to Tony with confusion, “I don’t understand. You created this program. Why is it trying to kill you?”

For a few moments there was nothing but silence after Hellen had asked Tony that but soon there was the sound of Tony laughing manically, crazed even and Bruce turned to where Tony was and gave him a look before he started shaking his head and gave a disapproving sound at the fact that Tony was laughing as if he belonged in the crazy house. This was definitely not the time to be laughing like he lost his mind. 

“You think this is funny.” Thor said in his booming tone of voice.

Norah looked at Tony and shook her head at him, not being able to believe that he was actually laughing at a time like this. “Tony.” She hissed and gained his attention. “This isn’t exactly the time to be laughing just to laugh. This isn’t funny.” She barked at him angrily, she may love Tony but that doesn’t mean that she agreed with what he did nor is she on his side for why he did this. 

“No, it’s probably not right?” Tony questioned sounding a bit out of it and crazed at the moment. “This is very terrible. Is it so terrible? It is, it is so terrible.” He said rambling off about the Ultron situation. 

Thor approached Tony in a threatening fashion, “This could have been avoided if you hadn’t played with something you don’t understand.” Thor said and ignored Tony’s interjection that he didn’t understand.

The other’s in the room watched Tony and Thor with bated breath, waiting to see if Thor gets so angry and frustrated with Tony that he ends up attacking him which ultimately would result in Norah attacking Thor back with her power and blasting him out of the Lab, the hallway and more than likely outside of the building and to the street that was however many feet below them. All in all, this was a very tense moment.

“You’re right,” Tony said as he walked closer to Thor. “I’m sorry. This isn’t funny, it’s a hoot that you don’t get why we need this.” He said waving his hands out in front of him while he was speaking. 

Bruce looked over at Tony, “Tony, maybe this might not be the time for this.” He said looking at him in a way that begged him to shut up before someone punches him or kills him.

Tony turned around abruptly and looked over at Bruce sharply, “Really? That’s it. You just roll over and show your belly every time someone snarls?” he questioned his friend in frustration that he didn’t seem to be on his side of things. 

Bruce gave Tony a look, “Only when I’ve created a murder bot.” he said testily.

Tony gestured towards the lab and the scraps of the Iron Legion, “We didn’t. We weren’t even close to creating Ultron.” He gestured and then looked intently at Bruce. “Were we close to an interface?” 

Norah sighed heavily to herself and sat down beside where Maria Hill was sitting on a chair and looked between Steve, Bruce and then over at Steve, Thor and everyone else who were looking at Tony in annoyance for what he did and for what he did without telling them. It was really starting to feel like this was going to be a long ass week, Norah thought the mission in Sokovia felt long but now with the whole Ultron situation she knew that it was going to be a lot longer week than she had thought it was going to be. Once this was all done and over, because honestly Norah knew that they were going to need her help with Ultron, she was going to sleep in her bed for about a week straight and only get out for food and bathroom breaks. 

“Well you two did something right.” Steve said as he looked at Tony and Bruce and then uncrossed his arms as he approached Tony. “And you did it right here. The Avengers were supposed to be different from SHIELD.” He said quietly, trying to understand why Tony would go behind their backs rather than being upfront about what he planned to do, if he had then none of this would have happened. 

Tony got on the defensive when Steve said that, “Does anybody remember when I carried a nuke through the worm hole?” he questioned.  
Rhodey groaned when Tony said that, “No, never came up.” He said blandly. 

“Saved the Earth.” Tony pointed out sardonically. “Recall that? A hostile alien came charging through the wormhole and you don’t understand why we need something like this? How were you planning on dealing with that?” he asked sarcastically to them as he looked around at his team members with his arms crossed in a challenging way. 

Steve was the one who answered, “Together.” He said to him simply.

“We’ll lose.” Tony said despondently. 

Steve looked at him in understanding, “Then we’ll do that together too.” He replied as if it was the answer to all of their problems.  
For a moment they all stood there in silence at what Steve had said, he was a soldier through and through. He’d rather die for his country, die protecting people and die for his friend’s than hightail it out of the face of danger and save his own hide. Steve was a boyscout as Norah liked to call him teasingly, an all American boy who believed in right and wrong and as far as he was concerned Tony had made a wrong choice by hiding his Ultron project from him. 

Steve gave a decisive nod, “Thor’s right. Ultron is calling us out. I’d like to find him before he’s ready for us. The world is a big place, start making it smaller.” 

And so with that the Avengers and Norah were on to their next mission. Taking down Ultron.


	7. Chapter 7

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~ Pietro & Wanda: South Africa~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

Ultron, Wanda and Pietro were in South Africa now but were waiting until the next day to make their move and head to the shipyard to get Vibranium and so now they were staying in some dingy abandoned house while Ultron did who knows what. 

Wanda peered at her twin brother with a look of concern on her face, since they had encountered the Avengers in Sokovia her brother has been acting odd….distant even and Wanda did not like it in the least. It worried her. Wanda knew what had happened in those woods when Pietro had ran off of the base and into the woods to confront the Avengers, she saw the girl that had a power that made it possible for her to keep up with him and his super speed, she saw how she talked and teased him, how she had kissed him and she had seen how her brother had reacted to that and she was able to tell how he felt about her and it was definitely more than curiosity which he had told her it was. Pietro did not need to think about this girl who was with the Avenger’s, nothing good would come of it. 

“You like her.” Wanda said suddenly as she looked intently at her brother who turned from his spot by the window that looked down into the city and instead looked into his sister’s eyes. 

“What?” Pietro questioned in confusion, wondering what his sister was talking about. “Who?”

Wada gave her brother a look, “You like her.” She repeated to him. “That girl from the woods. The one who is with the Avengers. You like her.” She said to him simply as she crossed her arms. 

Pietro looked at his sister with a raised brow, “Why do you say that?” he asked with a straight face refusing to allow his sister to know what he truly thought of the girl.

The truth was that Pietro was more than just curious and intrigued by the wild curly blonde haired girl with dark eyes and skin nearly as pale as his and his sister’s and it wasn’t just because she had powers; she was brave and had chased after him without a moment’s hesitation even though she knew that he was allied with Hydra, she was not afraid to take him head on and he appreciated that. The girl was not afraid to speak her mind as she proved to him when she mentioned being in a situation with him that required less clothing, most girls that he had met would not dare to make comments or jokes along those lines, but this girl….woman did so without any hint of embarrassment on her face. She was an enigma that he wanted to unravel. 

Wanda looked at her brother with hesitation for a moment, he was not going to like what she was about to tell him, “I know that you like her because I saw it in your mind.” She said and then gently tapped the side of her head with her fingers.

“Wanda!” Pietro hissed angrily at her when she said that to him, Wanda had promised him when she had first developed her powers that the only time she would ever use her powers on him was if it was a life and death situation but her going into his mind to find out what he thought of the girl he encountered was not a worthy reason to use them. “Why would you do that?” he questioned, eyes narrowed at his only living relative in anger and betrayal. 

At that Wanda gave a heavy sigh before answering Pietro’s anger filled question, “I was worried for you Pietro, you were being distant…quiet. I wasn’t sure what was going on with you so I decided to look into your mind to find out.” She admitted to him and gave a sad grimace when she noticed he was still giving her a dark look for prying into his mind when she did not have a right to. “I did not wish to but I didn’t know what else to do. You were not talking to me about what happened even when I asked you.”

Pietro wanted to be angry at Wanda for what she did, for the fact that she had used her power on him but no matter how much he wanted to he could not. Pietro understood where Wanda was coming from and understood that she had done it only because she was worried for him and that was why she looked into his mind to figure out what it was that he wasn’t telling her. Wanda was his younger sister by thirteen minutes, she was the only person who meant anything to Pietro, she was the only person that Pietro would kill for without guilt and no matter how many times they argued, fought or got annoyed at one and another they were family – the only family each other had left – and because of that Pietro could not stay angry at her for all that long especially now. They had plans that needed to be put into action.

“There is nothing that you need to worry about Wanda,” Pietro spoke to her in a soft tone of voice as he approached her and pulled her into a tight hug which Wanda more than accepted and tried to call herself of the worry she had for her brother and the girl that seemed to have captured his attention. “I will not do anything stupid. I promise.” He said to her and gently kissed her atop of her head and brushed some of her hair out of her eyes. 

At that Wanda raised her brow at her brother and stepped out of his comforting embrace, “Pietro, I do not wish for you to get involved with that girl ordo anything stupid because of this….fascination that you have with her. I know that the fact that she has powers makes her interesting and I too am curious because of that but you cannot lose sight of what we are doing. Of what we need to do.” She told him pointedly as she gestured with her hands out towards the South African town they were in. “We are here for a reason Pietro, not for a vacation or for just the hell of it but we are here to help Ultron.” 

Pietro gave her an annoyed look that she was lecturing him like a mother would do to a disobedient child. “I know this Wanda. I know what we are here for.” He said to her as he ran his hands through his silver/blonde colored hair. 

Placated, Wanda patted her brother on the side of the face as she looked intently into his blue colored eyes. “Then do not forget that this girl that you are fascinated with is with the Avengers. And even if you wished for it, she will not leave them to join our cause and to seek revenge on Tony Stark. She is our enemy Pietro, do not get distracted from our goal because of a pretty girl.” She cautioned him in a motherly tone of voice that reminded him of their mother who it still hurt to think about. 

“Do no worry Wanda, I will not let myself get distracted by a pretty girl as you say.” Pietro told her with a playful smirk on his face which made his sister look at him admonishingly. 

Pietro knew that he needed to keep his eye on the prize, on seeking revenge for what Stark had done to himself and his family, for the fact that his family was dead because of Stark and his weapons. He owed it to his mother Malina and his father Luka, he and Wanda both owed it to them to seek revenge for what Tony Stark had done to them. No matter how pretty or intriguing the girl was he must not forget why he and Wanda were helping Ultron.


	8. Chapter 8

There has been many times lately that Norah has spent dwelling on the past – on her past before being taken in by Tony three years ago. Norah thought about her mother and sister and the things that they had said to her when they found out that she was a Mutant, she thought about the things that they had said to her that resulted in her deciding that running away was the best course of action and Norah thought about what had happened to her before she ended up at Xavier’s Institute. Norah enjoyed the years that she spent at Xavier’s even if she didn’t think they were teaching her how to use her powers in the way that best suited her and how she understood her powers, but she did love it there and felt as if there was finally someplace that she was accepted without any doubt. It was at Xavier’s that she had meet Kitty who was a petite little thing that barely reached five foot, and she also met Kitty’s Russian born boyfriend Piotr who was at least six foot eight with massive muscles and made both Norah and Kitty look as if they were hobbits in comparison. 

It was hard for Norah to come to the decision that running away was what she needed to do; she loved her mother and her sister more than anything in the world, they were always there for her when her father wasn’t, they were there when her father forgot they were supposed to have a day together, they were there when her dad ended up not going to her school play and were there for every disappointment with her father and every time she had a bad no matter what the reason was. Norah knew it was more than stupid of her to decide to run away at the age of fifteen but she knew she couldn’t stay with her mother or sister anymore since they believed that she needed to get ‘fixed’ by a doctor – to get rid of her powers. And so she went on the harrowing adventure of running away from home at the age of fifteen with only her great-grandfather’s old army duffel bag full of anything and everything that she couldn’t leave behind and the things that she would need in order to survive running away. 

What Norah tried to not think about with all her might and what she ended up remembering once every blue moon was the incident….the horrific incident that had happened in St. Louis when she had trusted someone who she thought was genuinely concerned for her but ended up not being all that concerned and in fact had vile plans for her. Norah had been unbelievably gullible then, naïve and innocent.

A sudden loud knocking brought Norah out of her memories and into the present but before she was able to answer the door Tony barged in and seemed to swagger over to where Norah was sitting on her bed and plopped down onto it like a five year old kid. “Norah!” he said with a grin on his face but if Norah looked closely at his eyes she could see the turmoil that lingered in them, turmoil over the Ultron situation and what they now needed to do. “How my favorite daughter?” he questioned boisterously.

At that Norah raised a brow at him, “Tony,” she said to him. “I’m your only daughter.” She deadpanned to him. 

“Exactly, that means you’re always my favorite.” Tony pointed out to her and then gave her a sudden look of concern, a look that to any outsiders who were not Tony, Pepper or Norah looked foreign on his face. “Were you crying?” he questioned lowly, almost whispering it.   
Furrowing her brows in confusion Nora reached up and gently swiped beneath her eyes and felt tears, she didn’t even realize that she had been crying. “I…I guess I was.” She said lamely. 

“Hey,” Tony said as he sat up on Norah’s queen sized bed and looked into her dark eyes in concern. “What’s going on in that moderately intelligent brain of yours?” he questioned which made Norah give a small laugh.

Turning to look at her father figure Norah gave a quirky smile, “Moderately intelligent?” she questioned him as she sent him a ‘really, you just said that’ look. 

Tony grinned at her as he bumped his shoulder against hers, “Well you’re smart, no denying that. You had to be in order to graduate early with honors, but you’re not on the genius level like someone as amazing as me.” He said and gestured to himself arrogantly. 

When he said that Norah just gave a soft laugh and shook her head at him, “Sometimes I wonder how me and Pepper are able to take you.” She told him offhand and then wiped at the remaining tears that were on her face, hoping that none of the others would be able to notice that she had been crying even if it was unintentional. 

“Because you guys have the patience of a Saint.” Tony responded without hesitation and then looked at Norah with the concerned look of a parent. “Are you okay Norah, really? If you don’t feel like you can go to South Africa with us it’s okay, we can handle it.” He told her sincerely. 

Norah shook her head, “Nah, you guys are stuck with me until this is all done and over. I can do this, don’t worry Tony.” She told him honestly, a ghost of a smile on her lips. “I was just dwelling too much on the past. No need to worry.” 

“Nor-“

Before Tony could even get her name out Norah clamped her hand over his mouth, “Nope. I’m fine Tony, promise.” She told him with a serious look on her face, silently telling him to drop the subject and move on. 

Tony stared into Norah’s eyes trying to figure out what exactly about thinking about the past made her cry without realizing it, but he wasn’t an idiot and knew that if he pressed her for the information that she would lock up or would lash out at him. Norah was a stubborn thing and if she didn’t want to share information with another person then she wouldn’t, it was something Tony admired and hated all at the same time. Tony hoped that whatever it was that was bothering her wouldn’t distract her from the mission they were heading out on, it wouldn’t be good for her to get distracted by her thoughts when they were about to go and face Ultron. 

“We’re heading out in twenty, get your ass up and dressed and meet us at the Quinjet.” Tony said to her and then gave her a quick hug, so quick that it seemed as if it didn’t even happen, and then left Norah’s room without another word. 

Once Tony had left Norah looked down at her clothes and gave a sigh and reluctantly agreed that wearing a simple sports bra and yoga pants were probably not the most ideal pieces of clothing to wear when there may be a possibility of fighting, so with that Norah quickly dug through her closet before deciding on something to wear. Norah had decided on a pair of grey shorts that ended between her upper and mid-thigh and had a sort of army style to them, a pair of wide calved black boots that reached up to almost her knee and then she pulled on a loose fitting tunic length turquoise colored shirt that’s sleeves went to her elbow and was then ready to head on out to South Africa. 

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_ South Africa: Shipyard ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

Norah was hiding in the crevices of the second level of the ship and was able to look down to the lower level where Tony, Steve and Thor were confronting Ultron, Pietro and Wanda. Natasha stood a few feet to the left of Norah and Clint was on the opposite side that the girls were on and was looking down below at what was unfolding before them.

No matter how much Norah tried to keep her eyes from being drawn to Pietro’s figure she simply couldn’t help herself; it was as if she was the moth and Pietro…well Pietro was the flame that was burning and trying to attract Norah’s attention. Norah knew that staring at him like she was and memorizing every inch of him was a bad idea and not just a bad idea, no, it was a very bad idea that she knew without a doubt that Tony and the other’s would totally disprove of her doing. But Pietro was a very attractive man who was around Norah’s age, he had a sexy as hell smirk, his accent was a definite turn on and well, Norah was fighting a losing battle. 

“Norah,” Natasha whispered suddenly, looking at the younger blonde haired with shock when she realized that she liked the male Sokovian. “Really?” she questioned and gave Norah an admonishing look when she gained her attention and then subtly nodded towards Pietro who was on the lower level and was standing beside his sister. “He’s-“

Before Natasha could finish her sentence Norah interrupted, “I know.” She said quietly and ignored the look of disappointment that the red head was sending her and instead slumped her shoulders forward and gave a heavy sigh at her predicament. 

Natasha looked at her friend in concern, “You know that you can’t do anything Norah, right? You can’t try and make anything come from….this crush that you have on him. You can’t date him Norah,” Natasha said as she looked at her younger friend. “I get the appeal, I really do. He’s cute and has an adorable accent but you are wi-“ 

Norah cut her off once again and gave a pained smile, “I know. I’m with the Avengers. Trust me Tasha, I know.” She enunciated to her with a frown on her pale face. “He’s the bad guy who decided to side with Ultron and I’m the girl who is with the Avengers. It would make for horrible family reunions and beyond awkward Christmas dinners.” She joked with a half-smile on her face that didn’t seem to be all that genuine. “I wish things were different, that he wasn’t doing….this,” she said with a wave of her hands. “I wish that I was just a girl and he was just a random guy that I met at the bar or something instead of me being a Mutant and him being an enhanced human that was experimented on and who I ended up meeting during a raid on a Hydra facility. It’s not fair.” She uttered, a glare on her face and a scowl n her lips. “I know I can’t do anything Natasha.” 

Hearing the tone that Norah had used when she said that Natasha turned discreetly and studied Norah for a bit and realized that the life she has livened with Tony and the other Avengers has affected her and not all of it was for the good. Natasha knew that Norah loved the life that she had with Tony and Pepper, that she had with the rest of the Avengers. Norah was more than thankful that SHIELD had found her in Romania and offered to help her with her powers three years ago, she was thankful for meeting Tony in Fury’s office, she was thankful that Tony had paid for her to finish her degree even if she did complain about him doing that a lot, she was thankful that she didn’t have to worry about bills, she was thankful towards both Clint and Natasha for teaching her how to fight and use weapons – even if she would rather not use weapons. Though Norah had found a family with the Avengers it was different than interacting with people who are around your own age and the sort that went to Tony’s parties weren’t exactly the sort of people would want to be around for more than a minute or two. The life that Norah lived made it hard for her to get much social interaction outside of the Avengers.

Natasha sighed internally, No matter what Norah shouldn’t have to live her life like that. Norah should be able to go out and meet people her own age who she can get along with and who don’t want to get to know her simply because she was Tony Stark’s daughter, she should be able to have a normal life and be able to go and hang out with friends who weren’t trained on how to kill other people and she definitely shouldn’t have to be dragged out on missions by Tony and the others all of the time – Pepper hated when they did that. Norah should be able to have a normal life and should have the chance to find a person to have a relationship with like everyone else did. 

Instead Norah ended up finding a guy that she found attractive and interesting by going on a mission to take down Hydra, a guy who ended up being on the wrong side of things. 

“What’s the Vibranium for?” Tony asked, which brought Natasha and Norah’s attention back to the current situation.

“I’m glad you asked that,” Ultron said with a smile in his voice. “Because I wanted to take this time to discuss my evil pla-“

Before they were able to hear the rest of Ultron’s sentence he cut himself off and then pulled Tony towards him with some sort of magnetic force, while that was happening two other robots that were being controlled by Ultron came out of nowhere and attacked both Thor and Steve at the same time. Then, not even moments later did a group of Klaw’s men come barreling up the stairs and then split up so that they could attack where Tony, Steve, Ultron and Wanda and Pietro were and also attack where Norah, Natasha and Clint were. 

“Showtime girls.” Natasha said with a sly smirk and then looked ahead at the men that were making their way towards her and took out her guns without any hesitation and then shot at them. 

Hesitating a moment, Norah took a deep breath to help her gather her courage – she didn’t go into dangerous missions like this one too often – and then Blinked herself into the fight with Ultron, with the robots that he was controlling and having fight against her and the other Avengers……and with Pietro and his sister Wanda. Doing her best to clear her mind Norah Blinked herself to the lower level and right in front of a robot that was a few feet from her, the robot approached her in a threatening fashion but before it had time to get within five feet of her Norah flicked her hands out at the robot and made it crumble into a pile of pieces of metal as it hit the wall that was directly behind it. Cocking her head to the side Norah thought that was kind of anticlimactic, but before she had the chance to turn around and either Blink herself to another spot on the ship or to run after the robots or Klaw’s men Norah was flung into a bunch of cargo boxes. 

Shaking her head to regain her senses Norah looked up and saw a robot stalking towards her, but instead of being afraid like most normal people would be – people who weren’t Mutants – Norah looked at the robot with a scowl of annoyance on her face. Before Norah even had a chance to Blink herself behind the robot so that she could use her power on him Steve appeared before her and shoved his shield into the robots neck, kicked it in the stomach and then used where the shield was lodged in its neck to lift it off of the ground and then slam it down with all of his super soldier strength which effectively killed it. 

“Steve.” Norah reprimanded as she looked at him with an unamused look on her face as she propped her hand on her hip. “Remember that talk we had about you letting me fight my own battles and where you promised to stop treating me like a kid who doesn’t know anything about fighting?” she questioned but didn’t give him time to respond to her annoyed statement. “This is one of those times.”

At that Steve gave a sigh, “Sorry. It’s a habit.” He told her to which Norah rolled her eyes and then turned and waved her hands at a robot that was coming at her and Steve and not a moment later the only thing that a person would distinguish the pile as a robot was the head that was laying a few feet away. 

“Try to reel that habit of yours in, will you?” Norah suggested with a pointed look. 

“Hey girls,” Tony said over their ear comms. “If you two are done painting your nails do you think you could actually, you know, help fight.” He said a bit out of breath. 

In response to that Norah shook her head before Blinking herself away from where she and Steve had been and back into the fight, “Tony, if anyone is the girl here it would be you.” She pointed out to him and then ducked behind some kind of machinery as a robot soared over her head and imbedded itself into a wall – that was definitely Thor and his hammer. “After all, you are the drama queen.” 

There was a sigh, “Do you two always have to banter over the comms like this?” Clint questioned in annoyance.

“Yep.” Tony said before there was a crash sound come over the comms. “Well that hurt a bit.” He said.

Norah shook her head at her pseudo father and then got her head back in the game, glimpsing to the side she saw a blur and knew that it was Pietro but for some odd reason he wasn’t trying to take her out but instead was concentrating on taking out the others. As much as Norah tried to ignore the jittery feeling in her stomach and as much as she tried to not smile she couldn’t help it, she knew she had an effect on him when they were in the woods other than the obvious attraction. He wouldn’t be avoiding fighting her if he was only attracted to her, attraction could only go so far. 

Slinking along the wall Norah was making her way towards where she knew there was a stairwell that led to the second level of the ship, she thought that if she could get up and above where the fighting was that she would be more of use – she could just blow the robots up from her vantage point. There was a small problem though, between her and the stairwell was Klaw’s men all decked out with guns galore but all Norah needed to do was sneak a peek at the level above them so that she could Blink herself up there and use her molecular combustion power in order to blow all of the robots that Ultron was controlling into nothing but smithereens. 

Just as Norah was about to step out from her hiding spot she felt warm hands grip onto her short clad waist firmly, a male voice that she definitely recognized uttering in another language and then she was being zipped through the ship and into a secluded and abandoned room at lightning fast pace that made Norah’s eyes and brain hurt from trying to keep up with it. Stumbling a bit once Pietro released her Norah leaned her back against the wall that was closest to her and then she looked into Pietro’s blue colored eyes which were looking at her playfully, a smirk spreading across his face.

“What the hell!” she said in annoyance at the Sokovian, her eyes narrowing at him.

Before Pietro had a chance to say anything Thor’s booming voice came through on her ear comm, painfully. “Norah? Are you in need of aide?” he questioned.

Norah’s eyes widened when he said that, “No! No, I’m fine.” He said through the earpiece as Pietro slowly walked towards her and watched as she talked to her teammates in amusement. “Just got a bit of a surprise from a few stragglers. Nothing I can’t handle.” She told him as she watched Pietro carefully and also began to slide along the wall, away from him. 

“Norah.” Tony said in concern for his adoptive daughter. “Do you need help? I can send boy scout after you.” He told her seriously, referencing Steve and his all American attitude. 

At that Norah scrunched up her face not wanting anyone to come and help her at this precise moment, obviously Pietro went through the work to grab her and tug her away from the fighting for a reason. “It’s nothing I can’t handle. Promise. Don’t mind me.” She said to him off hand as she carefully watched Pietro as he made his way closer and closer to her at a slow and careful pace which she could tell was bothering him, but for some reason he wanted to take his time in approaching her. 

“If you need help-“ Steve began to say and Norah heard a grunt from him.

“I’ll give word, yes, yes.” She said impatiently and then muted her comm and let her arm drop to her side and then looked over at Pietro with a raised brow in question to which his smirk only widened in amusement at Norah’s curiosity. 

For a few moments both Norah and Pietro just stared at one and another, they were at a standstill so to say. Norah was curious and uncertain as to why Pietro had dragged her into this room that was a bit away from all of the fighting that was going on and Pietro was curious about Norah and was hoping that they would have a chance so that he may talk to her again, his sister would not agree with him in that sense but it was as if it was a need…talking to her again that is. He needed to talk to her again. 

“Pietro.” Norah said bringing the Sokovian out of his thought and to her. 

Cocking his head slightly to the side with curiosity, Pietro stared at the girl who had wild and curly blonde colored hair that looked like a mixture between honey and white blonde. “You have an….advantage?” he questioned, a bit uncertain of the word. “Over me. You know my name but I do not know yours. Will you give me your name?” he asked looking at her with sincerity. 

Norah hesitated for a moment before relenting, “Norah.” She said to him simply as she watched his every move, she may be attracted to him, unbelievably attracted but that did not mean that she lost all common sense and trusted him. 

Pietro smiled at that, “Norah, that is not your full name I do not think. Is it?” he questioned her curiously. 

“No,” Norah admitted to him grudgingly. “Eleanorah Sjoholm.” She admitted and figured that if he really wanted to know her full name that he could just ask Ultron anyways so might as well tell him the truth.

At that Pietro gave a smile, “Eleanorah, that is pretty name moj mali bik.” He said and then not even a second later he was face to face with Norah, his hands resting on either side of her face as he looked down at her from his taller stature, a smirk on his lips. “You do not play fair.” He said as he looked into her dark brown colored eyes.

Norah pushed herself back into the wall as much as she could and looked at Pietro with genuine confusion, unsure of what he meant by that comment. “Unfair? I don’t know what you are talking about.” She told him.

Okay, so that was a bit of a lie. Norah had a moderately good idea of what Pietro was talking about when he said that she didn’t play fair but she couldn’t be certain that he was referring to the incident in the woods that happened between the two of them; she had joked, teased, bantered and kissed him and then left him lying on the ground and headed back so that she could get an injured Clint back on the Quinjet. 

He gave her a reproachful look for that comment, “Do not play coy.” He told her and leaned a bit closer so that there were only a few inches between their noses. “You left without giving me time to respond.” 

Norah tried, she really did but she couldn’t help but let a small smile appear on her face at the put out expression that on Pietro’s face. It was in Norah’s nature to tease people though, like she did to him and left before he was able to respond to the kiss she gave him. It made life……interesting, that was for sure. 

“Sorry.” Norah said as she looked into his blue eyes that seemed to trap here there in her spot. 

When Norah had said sorry to him Pietro couldn’t help but chuckle a bit at her, it was obvious from her tone of voice that she wasn’t all that sorry and probably enjoyed teasing him like she did back in those woods in Sokovia. Silly little American, two can play that game.   
“You do not sound sorry,” Pietro responded as he leaned c loser to Norah so that there was only a hairsbreadth between the two of them and made it possible for him to be able to smell the sweat on her skin and feel the heat from the warm weather of South Africa radiating off of her skin. “Now I will not give you time to leave or talk.”

That made Norah curious as to what he was about to do, kidnap her? No, he didn’t really seem like the kidnapping type especially since she could Blink out of wherever it was that he might be hypothetically kidnapping her to. “What are yo-“ 

Before Norah had the chance to finish her sentence and question Pietro what he was talking about he swept in and pressed his lips to hers in an unexpected kiss, something Norah definitely was not expecting whatsoever. Norah tried hard, she really did try to reason with herself and tell herself that this shouldn’t be happening and that this was a bad thing that was going on no matter how good it felt and how tasty Pietro’s lips were, it was a bad thing that was going on but Norah couldn’t convince herself of that. Instead of pushing herself away from Pietro like any normal person would do who was in control of their emotions, like Natasha would do and any of the other Avengers who ended up being kissed by one of the bad guys, Norah welcomed the kiss whole heartedly. 

Norah didn’t just welcome the kiss though, she pushed herself away from the wall and pressed her chest into Pietro’s front and slithered an arm up his chest until it reached its destination of grasping a bit of his silver/blonde hair that was at the base of his neck while her other hand splayed across the middle of his side. Pietro grasped her hair tightly which was in a ponytail at the back of Norah’s head and then trailed his other hand along her side and then around her back before slipping his hand underneath her shirt and splaying it across her lower back and pushed her further into him so that he could feel her breasts press up against him. 

Breaking the kiss for a moment Pietro looked down into Norah’s dark colored eyes and gave her the chance to run away from him if she chose but instead she stayed where she was, grinning he leaned down towards her once again. “Vi ukus začina i toplote.” He muttered to her as he kissed beside her mouth, over towards her ear where he gave a gentle tug with his teeth, and then made his way down to her neck and kissed there as well but before he could do anything else Norah forcefully pulled him up to her level by the collar of his shirt and kissed him heatedly and playfully bit at his lip.

Giving a groan of pleasure Pietro wasted no time in lifting Norah up and pressing her up and against the wall which took but a few seconds for him with his enhanced speed; grasping Norah’s hair tightly but softly he tilted her head until it was at the right angle and began to once again kiss up the hollow of her neck at a torturous pace, kissed just under her chin and kissed on both sides of her lips which made her give a whine of impatience which he gave a small laugh for before he finally settled his lips on hers once again and kissed her heatedly while his hands slowly made their way down her shoulders, skipped completely over her breasts, down her sides before finally settling on her short clad bottom and lifting her just a bit more and pressing her further into the wall. 

Whining a bit, Norah hiked her leg over Pietro’s waist while the other dangled off to the other side which resulted in her being able to feel a certain part of Pietro’s body quite well, more than well in fact and that made her feel just that much more hot and definitely turned on. Almost lunging forward in an animal like fashion Norah grasped Pietro by the side of his face and pulled him to her and kissed him deeply, tasting him and breathing in his intoxicating scent that was strictly Pietro – warmth, earth, heat and man. 

Moments passed, it could have been minutes or hours as far as Norah or Pietro were concerned but soon they were interrupted by the sound of the fighting from their particular party growing closer to where they were making out at. Pulling out of the kiss both Norah and Pietro looked at one and another for a moment before reluctantly Pietro let Norah back down onto her own feet and stepped away from her, a look of sadness in his eyes. 

“It is too bad.” Pietro said to her as he looked towards the closed door. “If we were not on opposite sides-“ he began.

Norah smiled, “Then there would be less clothing involved.” She joked. “I’m with the Avengers and you are with….him.” she said in a repulsive way.

Instead of responding to her tone Pietro stepped forward quickly and pressed a kiss to her lips one more time, “Until next time moj mali bik.” He said as he stared down at her left forearm where there was a tattoo and to her upper left arm which also had a large tattoo from the shoulder to almost the elbow. “Perhaps next time I will find more of these, yes?” he questioned as he traced the red peony on her forearm and then before Norah had a chance to respond to him he disappeared. 

When he had left Norah leant heavily against the wall of the room and breathed deeply, she….she couldn’t believe that that had just happened, that she and Pietro had stowed away into a room and made out like teenagers rather than the twenty-something year olds they were. As much as Norah wanted to stay in that room and act like a girl and giggle like a weirdo she couldn’t, she had to get back out there and act as if she and Pietro hadn’t just been kissing and fight Ultron alongside her friends and family. 

So with that Norah pushed the door of the abandoned room open and jumped right in.

~_~_~_~_~_~~_~_~_~_~_ ~_~_~_~_~_~~__~_~_~_

translations:   
Vi ukus začina i toplote : You taste like spice and heat  
moj mali bik : my little bull


	9. Chapter 9

It was his sister that made Norah remember the worst time….the worst day of her teenage life. It was her that made her remember in explicit detail what had happened to her, what had been done to her, she….Wanda, made her remember how trusting she was, how naïve she had been and how innocent she was back then. Wanda made her remember St. Louis, Missouri, a place that Norah refused to ever set one single toe into for the rest of her life. It was in St. Louis that Norah lost her innocent and it was there that she had lost a part of herself for a very, very long time. St. Louis was a story that no one but professor Xavier, her therapist and Kitty knew about. Even though Norah loved Tony and as far as she was concerned he was her father, she hasn’t told him about what happened to her but he did know that something bad had happened, something unbelievably horrible but he didn’t know the gory details. Of course Tony wanted to know but he cared more for Norah than to sating his curiosity so he didn’t push her, he didn’t want to bring back those memories that she’s tried to forget about and he didn’t want her to pull away from him and Pepper or lock herself up in her mind. Wanda with her abilities made Norah remember that. 

St. Louis, Missouri: Norah age 15

“That was delicious!” fifteen year old Norah said as she bounced on her feet with a big grin on her face and walked down the street and away from the restaurant that she just ate at.

Jason Herschel, a man in his early thirties who volunteered twice a week at soup kitchen’s in St. Louis had invited her after he saw her sitting in her car in some apartment’s parking lot – she has taken to apartment complexes and just crawling into the back of her SUV and sleeping. Jason had told her that he recognized her from the soup kitchen and that he knew almost every homeless person from St. Louis because of volunteering there and taking the time to get to know the people and sit with them when they came in but he didn’t recognize her and knew that she wasn’t from their parts, he introduced himself to her and told her that he wanted to take her out to dinner to have an actual meal rather than whatever sad excuse of food she’s been having lately. 

At first Norah hesitated, sure he seemed like a nice guy who just wanted to help her out but she didn’t know him and wasn’t sure if she should trust him, he could be some sort of killer after all. He managed to convince her though after he told her about his wife and two daughters and even showed her a picture of them, so Norah decided that he was trustworthy. The man had a family after all. 

“Good.” Jason said as he moved his shaggy blonde hair behind one of his ears. “I’m glad. Can’t have a kid like you starving, my wife would have my hide.” He joked, his green eyes sparkling in amusement. 

Norah smiled over at him as they were walking down the sidewalk where there were only a few other people out walking as well, “Yes, it was amazing! Thank you! Thank you! I really, really appreciate it.” She told him sincerely. “I would have been happy with fast food.” 

At that Jason gave a scoff, “Fast food? Really? Come on, you haven’t had a decent meal in who knows how long I wasn’t going to just settle for fast food. You needed an actual meal.” He told her and gave her an unbelievable look for her saying fast food would have been fine with her. “I wasn’t about to let you settle for fast food like McDonald’s or something. Most of that is processed fake shit anyways.” He said to her as they made their way further down the sidewalk.

“Whatever,” Norah said with a shake of her head. “It’s food that didn’t come out of a can!” she said in excitement and a look of happiness on her face. “I don’t care!”

Looking up at the night sky Norah saw that it was dark out, it must have been getting late already. Norah didn’t think that she and Jason had been sitting at the restaurant and eating and talking for that long but apparently they had been without even realizing it, but in her defense the food was amazing, the dessert was delectable and Jason was really easy to talk to. He made her not have to think about her problems and she wondered if this was what it was like to have a father who actually cared. 

“This is a nice city, I like it.” Norah said as she breathed in the crisp night air. 

Jason looked over at Norah curiously, “Are you planning on staying here? Settling down in a sense?” he asked as he studied the younger blonde haired girl.

At that Norah thought for a moment before she shook her head, “No.” she said with a definite shake of the head. “No. I like this place but it’s not for me, I’m gonna have to leave soon.” She told him as she tightened the ponytail that was keeping her thick and curly hair in place.   
“Oh?” he questioned with a raised brow. “Where you going to head to next?”

Norah gave a shrug, “All I know is that I want to go south, that’s about it at the moment.” She revealed to him.

Hearing that Jason suddenly gave a grin and looked around where they were walking, there was an elderly couple walking on the opposite side of the street with their arms intertwined with one and another and there was a girl that was jogging in the same direction as he and Norah with her earphones in and it was then that Jason decided to make his move. As they slowly made their way past an alleyway Jason Shoved Norah as hard as he could into it making her fall and hit the ground quite painfully, before she had the chance to open her mouth and ask and/or yell at Jason he wrapped his hand around her mouth so that she couldn’t make a noise and then grabbed her by the collar of her shirt with his other hand and then dragged her further into the dark alley. 

With wide eyes Norah grasped at his arm and tried to push it away and finally after a few tried managed to pry it away from her mouth and she attempted to scream but before she had the chance to he wrapped his hand around her neck and squeezed tightly. 

“W..what..ar…are you…do..doing?” Norah gasped out painfully trying to kick at this man who she had thought was nice, charming and was only wanting to help her, but now it seemed that he wasn’t like that at all. “Pl…please.”

When she said that Jason instead looked down at her coldly and grinned a sadistic smile, “I’ve been watching you for a week dear little Norah, you’ve come to the soup kitchen almost every day, you’ve been staying in the same neighborhood for the same amount of time and didn’t even think to change up your routine. You’re a cute little thing.” He told her as she ran a hand down her chest making sure to get a good feel of it and down her stomach and to her sides where he harshly pinched her. 

“W..why?” Norah asked desperately and tried to Blink herself out of the situation but something was wrong, something was very, very wrong at the moment, her power wasn’t working. “Please just let me go.” Norah begged as tears began to form in her eyes because of the situation she was in and because her powers weren’t working and weren’t getting her out of there like she needed them to, this was not happening, this could not be happening. 

He grinned down at her and leaned closer to where she was laying on the ground, “Because I can.” He answered her simply as his eyes slowly traveled down her body, memorizing it. 

“Wha…what about your wife, your kids?” Norah asked desperately, trying to find anything that will distract Jason from doing what he was intending. “Won’t they th-“

Jason cut her off, “I don’t have a wife or any kids.” He told her and then pressed his nose into the side of her neck and inhaled deeply, Norah squirmed where she was and once again tried to Blink out of that alley and out of the situation she just found herself in but nothing happened. “I only told you that to gain your trust. You shouldn’t trust people so easily, it’ll get you killed one day.” He told her and then laughed in amusement. 

Norah tried to kick at him, to punch him and she tried to scratch at him, she did anything and everything that she could to try and escape his clutches, to get away from this man who is showing his true colors as a horrible person who preys on the weak. God, Norah fought as hard as she possibly could but Norah was a fifteen year old who’s never worked out much in her life and who also has barely any muscles; the fight to get away from him was over before it even began.

“Now, now that wasn’t very nice.” Jason said as he hovered above her, a dark smirk on his face as he looked down into her much younger one. “Now there are a few rules, don’t scream, don’t kick and don’t fight it. It’ll be over before you know it if you listen to those rules.” He said to her as he slowly reached down towards her clothes and started to tug on the buttons of the simple green button down shirt she was wearing.

When he started doing that Norah began to panic more and tears began to flow more freely from her eyes, he told her to not fight or kick or basically do anything that would make this hard on him but Norah wouldn’t do as he said. He was the one doing something horrible to her, he was the one who was deciding to do…..this to a fifteen year old girl and Norah may be scared out of her mind right now and wish shew as anywhere but there but she was not going to make this easy for him. She was going to fight him with everything she was since her power….since her power was out of sorts.

“NO!” Norah said and attempted to head butt him but he moved deftly out of the way before that could happen. “No! Please! Don’t!” Norah said while kicking and making as much noise as she could but he was still adamantly pulling at her clothes. 

She tried to stop him. She tried to get away from him. She tried to use her power but there was something wrong with it in that instance. Norah tried to fight tooth and nail to get away from Jason but it was no use. He left her laying there in the alley after he had finished. Norah was broken. 

Norah shook her head and tried to wipe those memories from her mind, those were memories that Norah tried her best to not think about. Those memories affected her deeply for years after the….incident had happened, she couldn’t go around men without giving them a wide berth and even if she knew that she could trust them and that they genuinely cared about her (Xavier, Scott and Wolverine) Norah couldn’t bear to be around them because of her fear that they will do what Jason had done to her. He had showed her that he cared for her and had said that all he wanted to do was get her at least one warm meal while in St. Louis and that didn’t exactly end up going well. Norah was raped, there was no getting around that and it took a lot of tears, of pain and suffering, of yelling and screaming on her part at her therapists and people who tried to help her, it took a lot of willpower for Norah to be able to come to terms with what happened and move on with her life. To live a healthy life after she had overcome what had happened.

Wanda though, Wanda dragged up those old memories that Norah had worked so hard to forget about and push into a little part of her mind where she wouldn’t dare to go near again and made all of those memories come rushing to the forefront of Norah’s mind and made her relive what had happened that night in St. Louis. Every single horrific moment that had passed, every single glance, every touch that he had graced her with, every threat and the deed itself, Norah relieved it. 

With shaky hands Norah ran clutched at the side of her head, fingers in her hair and tried to steady her breathing into a normal rate. “You’re not there anymore Norah. You’re not there, he’s not able to touch or hurt you anymore. You’re fine, you’re fine, you’re fine. You are.” She repeated to herself like a mantra, as if it was a life line. 

Stumbling into a standing position Norah leaned up against the wall that she had collapsed against after Wanda had messed with her head and made her remember the horrific….incident that had happened to her when she was much too young to have had to go through something like that. Digging her nails into the flesh of her palm to steady herself and to keep herself grounded Norah nodded to herself, she wouldn’t let herself get lost in self-pity, in her memories and wallow and get lost in the pain that those memories brought back and she definitely will not let herself become a shell of herself. Norah was getting out of this damn rusted ship and was going to find Wanda and let her know exactly what she thought of what she just did to her – it was safe to say that she was pissed at the female Sokovian. 

Cracking her neck Norah pushed herself away from the wall and stalked her way down the hallways until she found a way to get out and was hoping that the Maximoff’s were still within walking distance. 

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~ Pietro & Wanda ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

After the archer had used some sort of arrow with a device on the end on his sister Pietro had grabbed her and raced her outside and sat her down on some rubble that was just outside near where the ship was. He sat down near his sister and looked at her in concern, he would kill for her if she asked it of him.

“Are you all right?” Pietro asked Wanda as he held her hands and looked into her face with worry.

“It hurts.” Wanda cringed as she gently rubbed at where the archer had connected the device to her forehead before she had the chance to get into his mind and mess with it a bit. 

Hearing that Pietro gave a glare and made to stand up, “I’m going to kill him. Wait here.” He said to her but before he had the chance to leave and do just that Wanda had grabbed his arm to stop him and looked up at him with her dark colored eyes. “It was not him that made my mind hurt.” She answered. 

At that Pietro sat back down beside his sister and looked at her in confusion, “If it was not the archer, who was it?” he asked.

For a moment Wanda hesitated, she saw what she made the girl see in her mind….what she had made her remember and as not certain if she should reveal it to her brother who had an obsession with her. “That girl. I made her see things from past, made her remember bad things that happened to her. Something happened that should not have happen to a girl or any female. She was young, I cannot tell how old she was but she was very young Pietro and I made her remember. I know she is Avenger but that was something that shouldn’t have been messed with. I-“ 

Wanda was about to continue but the sound of angry stomps were heard, both Pietro and Wanda looked up and saw the girl that they were just talking about – Norah. 

“How dare you!” Norah yelled once she got in eyesight of both Wand and Pietro; she could have Blinked over to them but she was angry and wanted them to see how angry she was at what Wanda had done to her. “How fucking dare you do that to me, how dare you make me remember that.” She yelled and stopped when she was five or so feet away from where Pietro and Wanda were. “Did you enjoy doing that to me? Do you like making me remember that part of my life?” 

Wanda stood up and held her hands up in a pacifying motion, “I…I know. I’m sorry. I am so sorry for making you remember memories of that.” Wanda said to her feeling truly horrible and sorry for what she made Norah go through once again. “I shouldn’t have made you remember that, I should not have m-“

Once again Norah interrupted Wanda as Pietro stood up to stand beside his sister and watched the interaction that was going on between the two, “Do you want to know how old I was when he did that to me? Do you want to know how he convinced me to go with him and get dinner?” she asked Wanda rhetorically and continued on talking without giving Wanda a chance to answer her questions. “I was fifteen years old, had only been fifteen for a few months at that time and I ended up getting raped by a man I thought only wanted to get a poor little homeless girl an actual meal because he was worried and because he cared. Boy was I wrong.” She said with a sardonic laugh that sounded much too harsh for a girl as pretty as she was. “I had my powers then but you know what, what the funny…or rather unfair thing was. It was that my powers weren’t working, I couldn’t get myself out of that situation because at that moment they were nowhere to be scene. My professors said it was fear, fear kept me from using my powers to protect myself and get myself out of that situation. That my emotions went haywire and couldn’t get a good enough grip on them to escape. Funny how that works.”

When Pietro heard the words rape uttered by Norah he understood what was going on now and why Wanda had begun to regret messing with the blondes head and why she had started to have a bit of a breakdown, Norah had been raped when she had been a young teenager and Wanda had made her relive that horrible experience in full detail. Hearing Norah say that she was raped and only being able to imagine what she had been forced to endure made Pietro’s blood boil with a deep seeded anger and he didn’t know why he felt so much anger and hatred for what happened to Norah, he has only known the girl for a few days if you call being chased by her in the woods and then making out in an abandoned room knowing one and another. But Pietro did know that he hated that Norah had to go through that and now he was feeling protective and angry when he knew that he definitely should not be feeling those things for her. She was an Avenger. 

“I was stupid then,” Norah said as she glared at Wanda hatefully for what she made her recall. “Innocent. Thought I would be fine running away from home at fifteen and that I would be able to handle myself. I was wrong and I was taken advantage of because of that.” She said with a downcast expression and wished that there was a way to go back in time and warn her younger self from making the same mistake that she did. “And you,” she said louder and pointed accusingly at Wanda who had regret in her eyes. “You made me remember it. I’ve worked hard to forget about what happened, to not think about that night, about that stupid mistake of mine that I made as a teenager. I was messed up for a long time and hated being around males for a good long time after that and almost decided to never get married or get in a relationship because of that but I didn’t, I refused to let that moment in my life define me and define what I want to do with myself.” She told her passionately, fire in her eyes. 

“I am sorry,” Wanda said once again but she knew that it was not enough and would not make up for what she made Norah experience in her mind. “It won’t fix what I did but I am sorry.” She told her with remorse and looked at Norah for a few moments and smiled internally, she could see why her brother felt drawn to this girl that was with the Avengers. “You must leave.” 

When she said that Norah kept the glare on her face and crossed her arms under her chest, “No. I don’t think I will be. They’ll be here soon and they are so not going to be happy with you two.” She said and then looked over at Pietro with a shrug. “Sorry, you’re hot and all and are really good kisser but you guys are with Ultron and trying to kill the people who I see as a family. No offense.” 

“Ahh Norah,” Pietro said as he walked closer to her and looked into her dark eyes and scratched at his chin which was covered with facial hair. “You see, that is something that we cannot have happen. We try and hide from them you see, and you being here and able to contact if you wish does not help us stay away from their notice. I am sorry moj mali bik. This I cannot allow.” He said to her with a playful smirk on his face.

Before Norah had the chance to Blink away from their eyesight and back into the ship where the rest of the Avengers were Pietro had run at her, grabbed her around her full waist and then covered her eyes with his hand before running off. Pietro had a vague idea that Norah needed to be able to see to Blink from one place to another, she needed to see or have seen the place that she was Blinking to in order to transport herself there from another location and as much as Pietro felt an intense attraction for the girl he cared more for his sister and what their mission was, what they needed to do. So Pietro ran with Norah in his arms to as far away as he could get with her and where he knew that she would not attempt to try and follow after them and stop them from doing whatever it was that Ultron asked of them. 

“Hey!” Norah yelled in annoyance and tried to pry Pietro’s hand from around her eyes but she didn’t have much luck and as much as she was attempted to use her power a bit she would rather not accidentally blow one of his limbs off or something along those lines. “Let me go Pietro! By whatever gods exist, let me go!” she yelled at him and tried to swing one of her arms at him but before she was able to hit her target he had let her fall unceremoniously to the hard and dirt covered ground.

Looking around Norah did notice that they were still in the dried up shipyard but she didn’t recognize which ship she had been at nor did she see Wanda so Norah figured it was safe to assume Pietro ran her off a good distance. Giving a huff of annoyance Norah propped herself up and stood up to her height of five foot four and glared up at Pietro who was around six foot. 

“You are amusing.” Pietro said as he looked down at her with a smirk. “You glare does not scare me. Now, I must return to my sister. I will be seeing you.” He said to her and quickly leaned forward and pressed a hard kiss to her lips before running off back in the direction that he had come from.

At that Norah looked at his retreating figure in a mixture of amusement and annoyance, he seemed to be having a blonde moment and forgot that she knew what the outside and the inside of the ship that they had been fighting in looked like and could easily Blink over there in a blink of an eye. Men. So with that thought in mind Norah Blinked herself over to the ship once again but her eyes widened the moment she arrived because she heard a great roar come over from where they had landed the Quinjet, slowly turned she saw the Hulk freaking out and making a run for it in the direction of the city. 

“Fuck.” Norah said eloquently as she stared after Hulk, reaching up to her ear comm she pressed a small button. “Umm guys, I don’t want to worry anyone but Hulk is kinda heading towards the city where there are people and well, I think someone needs to head on after him.” She said as she looked after where the Hulk had run off into, Bruce was going to be beating himself up when he came to and was himself once again.

“Already on it Norah.” Tony answered as he flew out of the ship and barely missed hitting her on top of her head and few towards the city where the Hulk was more than likely going to wreak havoc. 

Rather than bothering to head back into the ship Norah just let herself fall onto her butt on the ground and splayed her legs out in front of her, god was she tired. Norah couldn’t wait for this whole Ultron business to get over with so that she could have a good night of getting shit face drunk and then sleep until noon at the least, as far as she was concerned she deserved it after all of this shit that was going on. And a spa day with Natasha and Pepper, she felt as if she deserved that as well. 

Sighing heavily Norah laid back on the ground and decided to not move for a while and that she really didn’t care about how dirty and muddy the ground was or if there were bugs crawling up her legs and into her hair, she simply didn’t care at this point. All she was trying to do right now was not think about what Wanda had forced her to remember about her past, about St. Louis. That memory and that place was better left untouched and unmentioned. Simple as that. 

“Norah?” Clint asked as he made his way out of the ship with Natasha’s arm thrown over his neck and his arm wrapped around her waist to steady her as they made their way towards where Norah was laying down. “You all right?” he questioned as he looked her up and down to see if there were any obvious injuries on her person. 

At that Norah gave a small hollow laugh, “No. No I’m not.” She answered truthfully and then looked at Natasha and saw that she wasn’t all there right now; it seemed that she saw something equally as horrifying as Norah did. “Though, if you’re asking about any injuries, no, the worst I have are bruises.” 

“Norah,” Clint said looking at her in concern. “Yo-“

Norah sat up abruptly and gave him a withering look, “I’m fine. Promise.” She said giving him a look that meant for him to drop it and not bother her about it. “Let’s get to the Jet.” She said as she stood up on her boot clad feet and hastily made her way towards where they had left the quinjet. 

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~ On the quinjet ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

The quinjet was silent; no one dared to speak a word other than when they had asked where they were going and Clint responding with a safe house that was a handful of hours away from where they were and that was all Clint was willing to say on the subject. Natasha was sitting in a seat along the wall looking down at her hands but Norah knew that on the inside Natasha was going through a whirlwind amount of emotions right now after the female Sokovian brought those memories back to her, Thor was oddly quiet and subdued and was instead sitting in one of the far corners by himself, Bruce was sitting on the floor with a blanket wrapped around him looking very much like a lost child, Steve was standing with his arms crossed looking very much like the leader he was and was lost in his own head wondering if there was anything he and the others could have said to Pietro and Wanda to make them see reason. Tony was out of his Iron Man suit and was muttering about Klaw and Ultron and what they needed to do now. 

And Norah, well Norah was sitting across from Natasha on a bench and had her brown eyes closed and her legs crossed and was doing everything that she could to keep herself calm and to not think about those memories that Wanda had brought back with a vengeance. No matter how much Norah tried she will always remember what had happened when she was fifteen years old, no amount of drugs, therapy or alcohol will ever be able to erase those horrific memories. But that didn’t mean that she had to think about it every moment of every single day, no that would drive her completely mad but there were techniques she could use to help lessen the memories and the intensity of them and the fear and pain that it made her remember when they managed to slip through the cracks.

It had been Professor Xavier who had taught her these techniques as well as Doctor Hank McCoy, they had only offered to show her these techniques after she had properly dealt with what had happened and was a semblance of a happy and healthy teenage Mutant.


	10. Chapter 10

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~ Minnesota ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

Niki Sullivan, or now that she was married she was called Niki Paaverud. Niki was happy with her life for the most part; she had a catering business that was very successful, she had a beautiful seven year old daughter named Aurora but most of everyone called her Rora instead, and Niki had a wonderful husband who worked in computer technology not that she knew much on the subject. She lived in a nice house in Minneapolis where she was able to run her business easily and where her husband could work with more job opportunity – it was a nice place and she loved where she lived. 

Something was missing from her life though – her sister Norah. No matter what Niki did and no matter much she tried to refrain from thinking about her little sister but somehow she always managed to come to Niki’s mind and god, some days Rora reminded Niki of her sister so much that it killed her. It was unfair for Niki and it was especially unfair on Rora who would never get the chance to know her aunt like she should have been able to, sure she had an aunt on her father’s side but she wasn’t all that hands on and kids seemed to instill a fear in her for some odd reason. All Niki wanted some days was to be able to have her sibling again, to be able talk to one and another about anything and everything that came to mind, to have girl’s night with just the two of them and would eat tons of ice cream and pizza. Niki wanted that again, she wanted to have her sister back so that they could do that again.

Niki was more than willing to admit that she and her mother had been wrong when they confronted Norah about being a Mutant and then proceeded to tell her what they thought of Mutants and what they knew of them, which they were wrong about a good majority of it. They had told Norah without actually saying the words that being a Mutant was wrong, that it’s unnatural, that she should be ashamed of being a Mutant and that she needed to go to the doctor to get fixed from her being a Mutant. Obviously there were some dangerous and powerful Mutants out in the world who could easily take advantage of people without even having to put forth much effort but there good Mutants too – Jean Grey and Charles Xavier being some of them. They were good people and good Mutants who were trying to put to rest all of the tales that were said about Mutants, about all of the stories that gave their kind a bad name. 

Norah didn’t mean to be dangerous when she blew the shed in the backyard to bits and pieces of wood, she had just come into a new power other than her power of being able to transport herself from one place to another and well…..they had reacted wrongly and drove Norah to running away at the age of fifteen and stealing their mothers spare car. 

A few times a year Niki would search for Norah using everything and anything that was available for her to use and with all that she could remember about her sister and anyplace that Norah may have said she had always wanted to visit. She searched and searched and searched some more and nothing ever came up, once Niki had married David she had hoped with his computer skills that he might have an easier time of finding wherever it was that Norah ended up living in but nothing turned up when he did a search either. Niki wasn’t going to give up though; she was determined to find her sister again one way or another. Niki didn’t care if by the time she and Norah were reunited that they were both old elderly ladies living in a retirement home, the only thing that mattered is that they have the chance to see one and another again. Niki wanted to find her sister again and introduce her to her family and to Rora, she was going to tell Norah how sorry she was and how much she loved her, missed her appreciated her and how she really didn’t give a flying fuck if she was a Mutant or not, she accepted her wholeheartedly. 

“Oh Norah, I’m sorry.” Niki said softly as she ran her fingers lightly over a framed picture of the two of them when they were younger, Niki was around twelve years old and Norah was about five or so and had the most stubborn look on her face which summed up the sort of person Norah was.

After Niki had a child of her own and felt the love that only a mother could have for her child Niki couldn’t even begin to comprehend how their mother wasn’t able to accept Norah as she was – a Mutant. No matter what Niki would accept her daughter; she’d love her if she decided to be a nudist, if she came out as bi or gay or wanting to be a man, she’d love her if she decided to join a polygamous relationship. Nothing, absolutely nothing in this world would be able to make Niki not be willing to accept her daughter and whatever she chose to do in life and because of the love she felt for her daughter Niki couldn’t wrap her head around why her mother disliked Mutants and the idea of Mutant’s so much. She knew that her mother missed Norah a lot more than she let on, it was in her dark eyes that were an exact replica to Norah’s but she could also see it when she looked down the hall of her home and at the door that had once been Norah’s room, when she went to family gatherings and saw the rest of their family with their children. Niki could see the sadness in her eyes when her mother looked at their relative’s daughters and was reminded of her own daughter that ran away.

Cheri wouldn’t even talk about Norah; not to Niki, not to Norah’s father or any of their relatives and not even to a therapist and Niki wasn’t exactly sure why that was. She thought that it was because it hurt for her to think about, that she missed Norah so much that it brought her to tears to think about, that she was embarrassed because Norah was a Mutant…..any of those could be why Cheri refused to talk about Norah but Niki couldn’t be certain the reason. Niki had asked her mother to help her search for Norah once, but instead of agreeing wholeheartedly Cheri shook her head vehemently, as if she was asking her to stick her hand in acid, and told her to never speak about Norah and the fact that she ran away. That she couldn’t talk about it and to leave the subject be. 

Niki would honor her mother’s request and would talk about Norah when she was around but she would be damned if she stopped all together, she would talk about Norah to anyone that wanted to know about her sister, she told David about her sister, she told Rora about the aunt that she hasn’t met yet and why she hasn’t met her yet, she told them about the fact that she was a Mutant and that she was proud of her sister for accepting her status as a Mutant and she told people about the person Norah was when she had known her. 

When, not if, they were reunited Niki knew that she was going to have to get to know Norah all over again because it has been almost eight years and a person is bound to change in that amount of time no matter the circumstances. Norah is twenty-two now and will be twenty-three in a six months’ time in April, rather than being her baby teenage stubborn as hell sister who Niki felt tagged along with her too much, Norah was now an adult. 

All Niki hoped for now was that she got a lead, a phone call, something that will put her in the right direction of where her sister was.


	11. Chapter 11

When Clint had said that they were heading to a safe house Norah had thought that maybe they would be heading to some sprawling metropolitan city that was so large that it would be hard to pick out where they had gone to, she had pictured maybe a warehouse that Clint had stored some weapons at and used to sleep at when he was on his way to missions, she thought of a Susie Homemaker suburban home even but not even with her wildest of imagination did she imagine this of all places. A farmhouse in the middle of nowhere Indiana. The place looked pretty lived in and homely even; there was an old truck that was at least twenty years old parked up on a dirt road that led to the house, a barn that was behind and to the right of the house, there was even a garden with what looked like vegetables growing on the opposite side of the barn and a field a yard or so behind the house and scattered throughout the yard were toys a basketball, one of those old red wagons and a foam sword.

“Clint,” Norah said as she and the rest of the Avengers followed him towards the house which had a nice wraparound porch and a bench swing to the left of the front door. “When did you become old Mcdonald?” she questioned as she noticed a chicken coop on the land as well.   
Tony nodded his agreement with Norah’s statement, “Yeah Legolas, what kind of cover is a farmer anyways? It smells weird here.” He said as he took a big whiff of the air with a scrunched up nose.

Clint looked behind him at Tony and gave a smirk, “That’s called fresh air Stark, I know you don’t get it that often living in the city but I promise it won’t poison you.” He joked and went up the stairs of the porch while aiding Natasha who seemed to have really been affected by remembering her past with the Red Room. 

“What is this place?” Thor asked as he looked around and studied the strange place that Clint had brought them to after the incident in South Africa. 

“Safe house big guy.” Tony responded as they stepped inside the two story farmhouse and was led past the entry way and into a living room that looked more than warm and welcoming and definitely not something you would expect for a safe house of a former SHIELD agent.   
Looking around the room Norah saw the worn but cared for furniture, there were pictures around the room and it…well it felt very friendly and it made her confused, more than confused even. Norah was befuddled over why Clint brought them to this ‘safe house’ of his as he called it, this place was definitely not a safe house not with the pictures that were up along the walls of a couple kids, of Clint and a woman and the few toys that were scattered in the room. No, this was definitely not a safe house, it was Clint’s actual home. 

“Honey! I’m home.” Clint called out once they reached the living room and keeping his hand pressed against Natasha’s back, hoping it helped ground her and kept her from lingering on her memories. 

It only took moments for whoever Clint had called to appear out of the kitchen, it was a woman who had long dark hair and was quite obviously very pregnant and was more than likely just weeks away from having the baby. The moment she saw Clint she gave a wide smile and then looked over towards everyone else with a welcoming smile who were standing there and looking at her as if she was some sort of science experiment (excluding Natasha).

“Hi. I brought company.” Clint said a bit sheepishly to her for randomly bring people around to their home without even a warning. “Sorry I didn’t call ahead.” He apologized to her. 

Rather than saying anything to that statement the woman stepped closer to Clint and pulled him into a loving hug before she leant up a few inches and pulled him into a quick kiss and gave a warm smile. “Hey.” She whispered. “I’ve missed you.” 

While Clint and the dark haired woman were getting reacquainted Tony looked at Thor and then at Clint and the woman again and shook his head to himself, he couldn’t wrap his head around what was happening at the moment with Clint and whatever this place was. “This is an agent of some kind.” He said to the others but most of everyone just ignored him and any witty or sarcastic remarks he had. 

“Sure she is.” Norah placated with an amused smile at what her father said. “I’m sure Clint goes around kissing random former agents of SHIELD all the time, pregnant one’s at that.” She teased with a smirk on her face knowing that Tony hated, absolutely hated not knowing everything about anyone and everything. 

Tony ignored Norah’s quip and instead looked over at Clint and the very pregnant woman that was pressed into his side with his arm wrapped over her petite shoulders. It bothered Tony, he couldn’t help it but it bothered him that in the last few years that he had known Clint that he never mentioned a family and that there hadn’t been any signs hinting to the archer having a life and family outside of the Avengers and whatever missions SHIELD decided to send him on. Okay, so he and Clint weren’t best of friends like he and Bruce were but he thought they knew each other well enough to at least tell one and another about families that they had and the fact that they lived out in the buckass of nowhere on a farmhouse in Indiana. Not exactly Tony’s style but kudos to Clint for wanting to live somewhere peaceful and quiet with his family. 

“Gentlemen, and Norah,” Clint said gaining their attention as he looked at the people who he considered friends. “This is my wife Laura.” He introduced. 

Laura gave a welcoming smile to the Avengers and Norah, “I know all of your names already.” She said with a small laugh.

Before anyone had a chance to say anything else there was the sudden sound of running footsteps coming from somewhere in the house and coming closer and closer to the living room, hearing the footsteps Clint gave a wide smile knowing exactly what, or rather who the footsteps belonged to. 

“Ooh, incoming.” Clint said as he crouched down a bit and not even a moment later a young girl and boy came around the corner and yelled ‘dad’ at Clint who just grinned down at the girl and picked her up in one of his arms and kissed her on the side of the face. “Hi sweetheart.” He said in a lighter and happier tone of voice and then hugged the boy who looked to be around nine or so. “Hey buddy.” He said as he mussed up his son’s hair. “I’ve missed you guys.” 

Tony looked at the children that were hugging Clint, “These are smaller agents.” He said.

Norah just raised her brow at him before turning her attention back to Clint and his family with sad eyes that she tried to hide but knew she wouldn’t be able to; this was the sort of family that Norah had dreamed of having when her parents had first started fighting and when she had learned of their intentions of divorcing. She couldn’t lie and say that it didn’t make her jealous or feel a stab of pain whenever she saw a happy family who had a mother and father who quite obviously loved one and another and who had kids they cared for no matter what, because it did hurt and she did get jealous and wished that she could have had something like that when she had been growing up. Instead, she grew up with a single mother who worked two jobs to support herself and her children, had a father who was barely ever there and whenever he did make plans with Norah he would either forget or break them because he had to do something else. Norah didn’t hate that her mother divorced her father or the fact that her mother had to work two jobs, in fact she was proud of her mother for that and found it amazing that she was able to make it work and still be able to have time for her kids on the weekend but that didn’t mean that the little kid in Norah didn’t get jealous of these sort of moments that she saw families have. 

She had Tony though and Pepper, Norah loved those two as if they were her family, as if they were her actual parents rather than two people who decided to take Norah in three or so years ago. She loved Tony as if he was her father and she appreciated everything Tony did, she called him father once in a while and some people may think that she is saying it in a joking way but she was serious when she called him by that title, he was her father. He may not have had any hand in making her but he did treat her as a daughter and that was all that mattered. Norah was thankful for what she had; Tony, Pepper, Thor, Steve, Bruce, Clint and Natasha and the handful of friends that she had. She was thankful for the family that she has created within the Avengers. 

Clint’s daughter looked at him, “Did you bring Auntie Nat?” she questioned hopefully, her childlike innocent and curiosity still intact.   
Natasha stepped out from behind Steve who was standing a bit in her way and plastered a smile on her face, “Why don’t you hug her and find out.” She said to which the girl gave a giggle and jumped out of her dad’s arms and into the arms of Natasha who hugged her tightly.   
“Sorry for barging in on you.” Steve said as he looked away from Natasha and the little girl and over towards Clint’s wife Laura.   
“Yeah,” Tony said as he looked at some knickknacks that were around the room. “We would have called but we didn’t know you existed.” He pointed out scathingly as he looked at Clint.

When Tony said that Norah looked up at Tony with a dark look, unimpressed at the tone he used and elbowed him sharply in the side. “Tony” she hissed. “Be nice.” 

Before Tony had time to respond to that Clint began to talk, “Fury helped me set this up when I joined. Kept it off of SHIELD’s files and I’d like to keep it that way.” He told them with a half-smile on his face. “I figured this was a good place to lay low.” He said with a shrug of the shoulders. 

Laura moved from Clint’s side and went over towards Natasha who had let the little girl down, “I’ve missed you.” She said and looked closely at the younger red-head and could see that something had happened on this mission of theirs. “How are you?” she asked as she pulled Natasha in for a hug for a moment and then released her. 

Natasha gave a half-hearted smile at Laura and then looked down at her very pregnant belly and then back up again, “How’s little Natasha?” she questioned as she laid her hands gently on Laura’s belly. 

At that Laura looked at Natasha with a slight grimace, “She’…uh…Nathaniel.” She said with a wry grin on her lips. 

When Natasha heard that she looked bent down towards Laura’s Belly, “Traitor.” She whispered in feigned anger. 

While this was going on Thor looked around the room at his friends, his comrades and thought of the vision of sorts that he had because of the female Sokovian and then without a word he left the house and headed outside, intending on leaving Indiana and finding someone who will be able to help him with what he needed to do. 

Norah was standing beside Clint and hip bumped him and crossed her arms under her chest and looked at him with an almost affronted look on her face, “What the hell Clint!” she said and lightly slapped him upside the head. “You have a wife, an adorable daughter and a son and you didn’t bother to tell me even. Hmm, what’s up with that?” she asked while giving him a look and pursing her lips together in slight annoyance, she wasn’t really angry but a tad bit insulted.

“Hey!” Clint said as he rubbed at his head where she hit him. “For such a small and unassuming thing you can be quite violent at times.” He told her. “Well, when you don’t take your explosive power into consideration that is.” He said offhand. 

“You’re damn lucky I’m not using my power on you right now,” Norah grumbled to him. “I mean come on, I’m trustworthy.” She said and gestured to herself. 

Clint laughed at that and patted her head, “Yes you’re a trustworthy, loyal and can even feed yourself. Good dog.” He joked to which Norah glared at him heatedly and pushed his hand away from her.

Later on while Clint and Laura were upstairs talking alone after finally being reunited with one and another both Natasha and Norah were seated in the living room playing with Lila, Clint’s five year old daughter who Norah thought was one of the most adorable little girls that she had ever met in her life. Being around Lila reminded Norah of some of her younger cousin’s and some of her second cousins who she used to play with and watch once in a while when she had been younger. 

“Norah!” Lila yelled in excitement as she went over to where the blonde haired twenty-two year old was and dropped a pile of Barbie’s near her. “What Barbie is your favorite? Did you play Barbie’s a lot when you were younger? My favorite is Skipper!” she said to her with a wide grin spreading across her face, a grin that looked eerily similar to the one Clint has at times. 

For a moment Norah just stared at the younger girl with wide eyes, she wasn’t used to having so many questions at once being thrown at her by a hyperactive childlike Lila seems to be. Lila reminds Norah of a much younger version of Kitty actually, just as hyper and talkative and friendly. 

“You know what,” Norah said as she looked down at the little girl who looked up at her with rapt attention. “I can’t even remember what my favorite Barbie was. It’s been so long since I’ve played with them.” She told her with a playful smile on her face. 

When Lila heard that she gave an over exaggerated gasp, looking at Norah as if she had just told her that Santa wasn’t real. “What! You need to have a favorite! You have to!” she told her and then thrust a Barbie into Norah’s hands with a pile of clothes to go with it. “Here. That’s Kelly.” She told her and then turned her attention back to her original Barbie and began to take the clothes that were on her off and instead pulling on a fancy ball gown on her. 

“Uhh, thanks.” Norah said in a questioning tone of voice. 

“So, Barbie and Kelly are going to a ball with two of their other best friends.” Lila said as she looked intently at her Barbie and then produced two other Barbie’s that were already dressed up in sparkly dresses and high heels and bows in their hair which Norah assumed was Lila’s doing. “You can’t wear red though,” Lila said to Norah suddenly with a serious tone of voice. “I’m wearing red and we can’t wear the same color. It’s against the rules.” She told her conspiratorially. 

Norah looked at the little girl in amusement before she reached over and gently tugged on a strand of her hair playfully, “Okay, I’ll do my best to not feel disappointed.” She told her jokingly. 

When Norah said that Lila seemed to look at her seriously for a moment and be deciding something, but soon enough the little girl nodded and then looked into Norah’s dark colored eyes. “Well, if you really, really, really want to I ‘spose you can wear red too. Just this once though, okay?” she questioned. 

“You know what,” Norah said as she picked through the Barbie dresses that Lila had given her. “I think I’ll choose blue. I like blue.” She told her as she grabbed a random dress and proceeded to put it on her Barbie that Lila gave her. 

For a while both Norah and Lila played Barbie’s, they put on a fashion show for Natasha as Lila was the announcer and was telling them the clothes were all the rage in Paris or somewhere like that. It was nice to be around someone like Lila, to be around children in general who were so curious and so happy with the world and didn’t know much about all of the bad things that happen – things that the Avengers fight.   
“You’d be a great big sister,” Lila said suddenly as she looked up at Norah who was sputtering on her drink of water and attempting to not spit it onto the wood floor of Clint and Laura’s home. “I can tell these sorts of things. You played Barbie’s with me.” She said as she bounced in place between her and Natasha on the couch. “I always wanted a big sister, always, always, always. I asked mom and dad for one but they said they can’t give me one, that it doesn’t work like that. Callum is a big meaning head at times, a sister would be much better.” She said as she crossed her arms and then looked up at Norah. “Do you have a big sister?” 

For a few moments Norah didn’t say anything, in her mind she pictured a girl who was in her early twenties with straight dark brown hair pulled into a ponytail, a tad bit darker skin tone than her own, and murky blue eyes. That was her sister – Niki. 

“I do,” Norah slowly admitted and saw from the corner of her eye that Natasha was looking at her in concern; she knew how much Norah hated talking about her birth family. “But I haven’t seen her in a very long time.”

Lila looked up Norah with a slight frown on her face, “Why? What happened?” she asked curiously.

When the little girl had asked that Natasha decided to step in, “Lila, it’s not appropriate to ask questions like that.” She told her and leveled her with a stern look. 

“Tasha,” Norah said as she looked over at her friend. “It’s fine.” She told her before turning her dark eyes back to Lila who looked properly reprimanded. “Things happen sometimes Lila, and well stuff happened with my family and I haven’t been able to see them in a long time because of that. But someday, someday I hope to see my sister again.” She said to her and took a deep breath before she moved to get up and off of the couch. “I’m going to see if the shower is free now.”

And with that said Norah headed upstairs to where Laura had told them the one shower in the household was and hoped that some steaming hot water would do her good, help calm her down. And help her to not think about Pietro and how great of a kisser he had been and how tasty his lips had been and how much she felt drawn to him even though he was on the wrong side of good and bad.

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~ _~_~_~ Tony ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

After talking with Fury about Ultron, about how stupid Fury thought Tony was for using the scepter to experiment with this Ultron project of his which had backfired horribly, asking Tony why exactly he thought that Ultron was a good idea and after talking to Fury about his nightmare of where all of his friends had died but him. Well, after that stressful talk Tony decided to seclude himself to the barn for a while so that he could sort through his thoughts and to try and forget about those images that were put in his dead by the Maximoff girl. 

Tony had lied to Fury, the worst part about his nightmare or whatever you want to call what that girl did to him wasn’t still being alive while Steve, Clint, Natasha and Bruce were dead, the worst part about that whole nightmare was the fact that he had seen Norah dead. He had seen Norah’s prone body lying limp on the ground, her hair splayed out and matted with blood, her eyes staring lifelessly at him and that terrified him more than anything in his life ever has. Norah and death should never be in the same sentence, if he had to Tony would fight tooth and nail just to be sure that Norah lived if he could not and he knew without a doubt that Pepper would want that to be done as well. Norah was his daughter, she mattered just as much to him as Pepper did, she liked joking around, she was playful, she bantered back and forth with him and kept Tony on his toes, she understood his humor and if she….if she died Tony wasn’t sure what he would do. 

Sure Tony lived a life before Norah, he had his money and his company and he had Pepper but when Norah came to live with him and Pepper and when she finally started to open up to him and show her personality....well that was when things were cemented. That was when they truly became one and another’s family, that was when Tony felt as if he was complete. He had Pepper and he had Norah and he was happy with that. 

“Stupid…god damn…Fury.” Tony grumbled to himself under his breath and then dug into his pants pocket and took out his wallet and flipped it open and there staring at him was a picture of both Pepper and Norah on a beach in Italy from when they all had taken a vacation together, it was one of his favorite memories since Norah had come to join their family. 

Keeping a picture of your family was something cheesy, Tony would admit that and he never thought he’d do something like that but, having this picture to look at whenever he went off on missions kept him grounded and helped him keep his common sense and reminded him to not do something too reckless – he was Tony Stark after all being reckless was in his blood. 

Tony hoped that nothing bad would happen to himself or to Norah, already he knew that he was going to be getting one hell of a lecture from Pepper when she was finished with her business trip. God, Pepper was going to chew him up and then spit him back out again. 

~_~_~_~_~.~_~_~_~.~_~_~_~._~_ ~_~._~_~_~_~._~_~_~._~_~_~.~_~

“Thank you Laura,” Norah said as Laura grabbed her plate before she had the chance to take it up to the sink herself. “You make amazing food.” She told the older dark haired woman with a genuine smile, it was true, the food was pretty good.

At that Laura smiled at her, “Thank you Norah and thank you for helping make it, it really helped.” She told her as she looked around the room at the numerous people that seemed to have invaded her home over the last twelve or so hours. 

Norah shrugged her shoulders, “I don’t mind, I used to help cook for an army of kids at my old school.” She said remembering Xavier’s school and all of the mouths of the kids and teachers and Mutant’s that passed through that they ended up feeding. 

Laura just gave a laugh at that and took the remaining plates into the kitchen and was about to start doing the massive amount of dishes that they just used up but before she had the chance to do so Fury had come over and banned her from the kitchen and told her that he would take care of the dishes since she opened up her home to all of them without question and without complaint, knowing when shew as about to argue a losing battle Laura thanked him and instead headed into the living room and settled down on the couch to relax and to sit with her two kids while Clint, Fury and the others talked about Ultron and what they needed to do next. What they needed to do to take down Ultron and make sure that he stays down for good. 

“Ultron took you guys out of play to buy himself time. My contacts all say he’s building something.” Fury said as he was drying some of the dishes that he was washing for Laura. 

Everyone was spread throughout the kitchen and living room area; Natasha and Norah were sitting at the table, Tony was playing darts while listening to the conversation and adding input, Bruce was leaning up against a wall behind Norah and Natasha, Clint was sitting near where Tony was playing darts and Steve was standing near the kitchen entryway. 

Fury looked at everyone, “With the amount of vibranium he made off with I don’t think it’s just one thing.” He told them with a serious tone, not one emotion escaping his face. 

Steve leant up against the wall and looked at Fury, “What about Ultron himself? Do they know anything about what’s going on with him?” he asked.

“He’s easy to track. He’s everywhere.” Fury told them honestly, though considering the fact that Ultron was able to escape through the internet no big surprise there really. “The guy is multiplying faster than a Catholic rabbit. Still doesn’t help us get an angle on any of his plans though.” He said with a half shrug of his shoulders at that small fact.

Tony looked over from where he was throwing darts at, “Still going after launch codes?” he questioned as he almost was able to throw a dart into the bullseye part of the board but missed but millimeters. 

Fury nodded his head at that, “Yes he is. But he’s not making any headway.” He said to them as he finished drying the last dish of the night and then turned his full attention to the Avengers that were sitting around and looking at him as if he had the answers to everything, as if he had some special weapon hidden up his sleeve that will give them the upper hand against Ultron, but he didn’t. 

Tony looked over at everyone once again, “I cracked the Pentagons firewall in high school on a dare.” He pointed out boisterously, proud of that fact. 

Fury had the urge to roll his eyes at Tony but refrained, if Norah saw that he wouldn’t let him hear the end of the fact that he did in fact have actual emotions, he was a SHIELD agent and he needed to keep his emotions intact, that was what he was trained to do. 

“Yes,” Fury said to them. “I contacted our friends at the Nexus about that.” 

Steve gave a look of confusion, never hearing of this Nexus place before. “Nexus?” he questioned. 

Bruce was the one to answer, “It’s the world’s internet hub in Oslo.” He replied as he cleaned his glasses with a cloth. “Every bit of data flows through there, the fastest access on Earth.” 

Looking over at the darts Tony was playing Clint grabbed one and threw it directly in the bullseye before Tony had the chance to throw his dart; Tony looked over at Clint who just gave an innocent look. “So, what’d they say then?” he asked as he looked back at Fury. 

“He’s fixated on the Missiles, but the codes are constantly being changed.” Fury explained as he leaned against the counter of the kitchen and looked at the team.

Tony turned, “By who?” he asked.

No one would be changing the codes just on a whim, whoever was doing it needed to know about Ultron and needed to know what his plan was exactly and thus far Ultron hasn’t exactly gone out into public view as of yet. At least as far as they knew he hasn’t but they hadn’t exactly been keeping track of the news for signs that he was letting people know who he was and what he was planning on doing.   
“Parties unknown.” Fury told them.

“Do we have an ally?” Natasha asked hopeful, they could sue another person on their side. 

At that Fury gave a pointed look. “Ultron’s got an enemy. That’s not the same thing, still, I’d pay folding money to know who it is.” He said to them.

Norah looked over at Fury with a raised brow, “Patchy, come on. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Isn’t that how the saying goes?” she questioned and leaned back into the kitchen chair she was sitting on which was really starting to hurt her poor ass.

Fury looked over at the girl who he and Clint had found in Romania, a girl who had leveled a housing development with one flick of her hands, a girl that has become quite powerful and skilled after being trained by SHIELD agents to control her power…a girl who he grudgingly admits has become an asset. The girl pissed him off at times but he respected her and trusted her power. 

“That’s not the same thing Norah,” Fury told her as he looked at her intently. “Not in this business it isn’t.” he told her quietly. 

“You shouldn’t rule it out though.” Norah pointed out, this person or whoever was an unknown and if they were trying to keep Ultron from gaining power then Norah thought that they should view them as an ally rather than someone who was an enemy like Ultron was.  
Tony smiled at his daughter before looking at everyone else, “Might need to visit Oslo to find our own.” He stated. 

Giving a heavy sigh Norah looked over at Fury with slight annoyance that this was all he had brought to the table, “Well this is all good times boss but I was kinda hoping when I saw you that you’d have more than that.” She told him with an expectant look on her face. 

Fury looked at her as if she lost her mind, “I do. I have you.” He said in a light tone of voice which confused everyone that was in the room at the moment. “Back in the day I had eyes everywhere and ears everywhere else. You kids had all the tech you could have dreamed of and here we all are back on Earth with nothing but our wit and will to save the world.” He said and walked further into the room with an air that commanded everyone’s attention. “Ultron says the Avengers are the only thing between him and his mission. And whether or not he admits it his mission is global destruction. All this laid in a grave. So stand. Outwit the platinum bastard.”

Hearing that Norah couldn’t help but look over at Steve and then back to where Fury was all but giving an encouraging speech , “Steve doesn’t like that kind of talk.” She said slyly, looking over at Steve who shook his head.

“You know what Norah.” Steve said in a joking tone of voice as he looked over at the young curly blonde haired girl. 

“So what does he want?” Fury questioned, a brow rose as he made his way towards the table and sat at one end and looked at everyone expectantly. 

For a moment there was nothing but silence as they all ponded that question, it was Steve who finally answered. “To become better, better than us. He keeps on building bodies.” He said to them in reference to the iron legion like army that Ultron created to help fight against the Avengers with.

Tony furrowed his brow as he left his game of darts and went further into the kitchen, “Human form isn’t efficient. Biologically speaking we’re outmoded, but he keeps on coming back to it.” 

Frowning, Natasha looked over at Tony with annoyance. “If you were programming him to protect the human race you’ve amazing failed.” She said to him with dark eyes for the problem that he caused not only the Avengers but the world as well. 

For a few minutes there was nothing but silence, the only sounds were coming from the living room where Laura, Callum and Lila were. Everyone was uncertain of what their next plan of attack should be, they couldn’t exactly go back to the tower at the moment with the Hulk situation but if this went on for much longer they would have to chance it. Ultron was planning something, doing something but what was he doing that he needed all of that Vibranium. What was his end game? 

Bruce looked down at the butterfly drawing that Clint’s daughter had given Natasha and he had a sudden realization come over him. “The human race doesn’t need to be protected, it needs to evolve.” He said which gained him curious looks from everyone else as they waited for him to get to the point. “Ultron is going to try and evolve.”

Fury took a drink of his water and then set it back down on the wooden table, “How?” he asked. 

Bruce looked around the room, “Has anyone been in contact with Hellen Cho?”

~_~_~_~_~_~.~_~_~_~.~_~_~_~_~_~.~_~_~_~.~_~_~_.~_~_~_~_~.~_~_

It was around ten thirty or so at night and Norah had decided she didn’t want to be cooped up in the house any longer and had made her way onto the room of Clint’s farmhouse and looked up at the night sky and enjoyed looking at the vast amount of stars that were above her, it was beautiful here in Indiana at Clint’s farm out in the middle of nowhere and far away from the light pollution that most big cities gave off nowadays. Out here the stars were beyond vibrant and Norah loved having the chance to be able to go outside and look up at all of them and do a half-assed attempt at picking out all of the constellations that were up there – she was never all that skilled in astronomy, that was her sister’s forte. 

Tony on the other hand was inside the house sitting in the kitchen drinking coffee and realized that it’s been at least an hour or two since he’s seen his daughter and since everyone had disbanded from the kitchen and headed towards their designated sleeping spots for the night, so Tony got up and decided to go and search for his daughter but after tiptoeing quietly through the house so to not wake anyone or Clint’s kids there was not one sign of Norah being in the house. Giving a sigh, Tony went outside and walked a bit away from the house and saw that Norah was sitting on the roof, roofs were her go to spot when she was feeling down or wanted to get away. Grumbling to himself about how he was too damn old to be climbing up the side of porches and onto the roofs of houses Tony finally managed to make his way up there and carefully sat down beside Norah who gave a quick glance to where he was sitting beside her but turned her attention upwards and to the stars. 

After sitting in silence for a while with Norah, Tony decided to break the silence between the two and figure out what was going on with her. “You’ve bene quiet, kid.” He said as he turned his head and looked at her with the concern of a father. “Do I have to call Pepper and get her to interrogate you? I’m banned from doing that since I’m too much of a softy when it comes to you, so says Pepper but what does she know, she’s a bossy little thing.” He joked to her with a shake of his head and gave an internal whoop of victory when he saw a brief smile appear across Norah’s pale face. 

“You are a softy when it comes to me,” Norah supplied to him and gave another smile. “That’s how I get away with saying what I do to you.” She said softly, not sounding anything close to her usual playful and joking tone.

At that Tony nudged Norah with his shoulder playfully and when she looked up into his grey colored eyes Tony couldn’t help but give an inaudible groan at what he saw, Norah’s eyes were nowhere close to being the usual bright and happy ones that he was used to seeing. The mischievous sort of eyes. The determined and stubborn filled eyes. Instead they were filled with sadness and pain, they held a deep hurt in them at the moment that Tony had only seen in Norah;s eyes a handful of times and he knew that it was the fault of the female Maximoff who he wanted to make suffer even more for putting Norah through whatever she had seen in her mind. He wanted to make the Maximoff girl suffer as his daughter has suffered. 

“Blinker,” Tony said fondly, using the nickname he gave her when he saw her power for the first time. “What happened?” he asked as he looked at her intently, wanting….needing to know what happened to her and what she saw. 

At that Norah swallowed hard, she wasn’t going to go into detail about what she saw in her mind because of Wanda’s power, Tony would never find out about that. “I..I saw things Tony.” She finally answered after a few tense seconds, but her voice was very quiet and meek and Tony didn’t like it, she was strong and fierce and a stubborn she-devil at times. “Things from my past, something bad had happened to me when I was younger. Something I don’t like to talk about.” She said and sent Tony a silent command to not ask her what it was that happened. “I’ve tried so long to not think about that, Xavier helped me to try and lock those memories up so that I wouldn’t have to be affected in my day to day life. So that I could live a normal life.” She said and then gave a small dry laugh at that statement. “Well, as normal as a Mutant can have I suppose. I’m not saying that I don’t think or remember what had happened because I will always remember what happened to me but I’ve been able to deal pretty damn well and get over what happened but…she made me feel as if I was there all over again. As if I was experiencing that incident all over again rather than almost eight years ago. I hate that she did that to me, I hate that I had to see that all over again but I wouldn’t wish that on anyone, not even her.” She told him honestly and then dug her fingers into her messy blonde hair and sighed heavily as she leant forward and rested her elbows on her crossed legs and closed her eyes for a few moments.   
Rather than pulling Norah into a hug like he had the urge to do at the moment, Tony instead let her be for a moment and let her sort through her thoughts for a moment. It pained him to see Norah having to experience something horrible all over again, she shouldn’t have had to go through whatever it was that she did all those years and now, now she had experienced it all over again. If Pepper was here she would know exactly what to say, it was a fifty/fifty chance of Tony ending up saying the right thing to make Norah feel better. Sometimes he said the exactly right thing that she needed to hear and other times Norah told him that he needed to leave and that he was making it worse. 

“If you want to talk, I-“ Tony began but before he had time to finish his sentence Norah immediately interrupted him.

“I don’t.” Norah said without hesitation. 

“But if-“

Norah sighed and slapped a hand over Tony’s mouth, “I won’t Tony. Trust me I will not want to talk about this subject with anyone, ever. Okay. I love you like a father, I really do but this is something only four other people know about. It’s something that’s in the past and something that I don’t want to talk about ever again after this moment. Okay?” she questioned as she looked at him fiercely, as if she was daring him to go against her wishes. 

At that Tony nodded reluctantly, he wasn’t happy about what she told him but he would respect it. If Norah wanted and if she got angry enough with Tony she could use her powers on him, but she didn’t.

“It’s late Norah.” Tony said as he looked at her worriedly, wondering if maybe she should stay behind instead of coming with them to Seoul. “Think we should maybe head in and get some sleep before tomorrow. We got an early morning and I’m not against throwing a glass of water on you.” He told her a smile playing on his lips.

Norah scoffed at that, “Bring it on old man.” She said and nudged him a bit with her shoulder before she eventually laid her head down on his shoulder and looked out at the peaceful night sky. “Can we just stay out for a little while longer? Promise I’ll go in soon.” 

Tony wanted to say no and wanted to take her inside to make sure she was fully rested for whatever may happen tomorrow but like Pepper said, he was a softy when it came to Norah. “All right but you better not drool on me if you fall asleep.” He told her.

“I’ll try my best.” Norah answered with a laugh.


	12. Chapter 12

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~ Early Morning: Tony & Norah ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

It was early morning, it was so early that the sun was a good forty-five minutes to an hour or so from even peaking over the tops of the tree’s that Clint’s farmhouse was surrounded by. Norah was definitely not a big fan of this whole being up before the sun thing, she used to have to get up this early and even earlier when she had been living in Sweden and going to school and work but now, well now she was not used to doing it anymore but apparently it was needed, so says Steve. He said that they needed to be up and at ‘em before the sun came up so that they could be on their way to Seoul before Ultron was able to create a new body for himself with the Vibranium he got from Klaw in South Africa. 

The plan was that Tony would be hitching a ride with Fury, or as Norah liked to call him, Patchy. And once Tony got to wherever it was that Fury was going to, he would head on off to Oslo to figure out who it was that is helping them so that Ultron couldn’t get the nuke codes, and Norah, Steve, Clint and Natasha would be taking the Quinjet and heading immediately for Seoul. 

“You know,” Tony said as he sat himself down beside his daughter on the porch swing and gently pushed his legs back and forth. “You don’t have to go to Seoul with American Pie if you don’t want to.” He said as he referred to Steve and then looked intently into Norah’s dark brown eyes with his own light brown colored ones. “I..I care about you Norah and I know you want to help, that you are willing to help but I don’t want you to go and do something just because we are asking you to do it. You can say no you know.” He said to her and gave her a look of understanding if she did descide to not go on this mission and instead go with him or stay on Clint’s farm with his family. “You say it to me all the time.” He said flatly, she’s taken Pepper’s side on a few experiments/inventions of his. 

When Tony had said that to Norah she responded by sending him a sideways glare at the suggestion, she loved Tony and she appreciated that he worried for her so much that he was trying to subtly get her to say no to the mission but no matter how scared Norah may be, how freaked out over everything that was going on and no matter how exhausted and mentally spent she was she would not be backing down from this. Norah was a stubborn, determined, fierce, loyal and protective sort of person who would do almost anything for her friends and family, and this….going to Seoul to try and make sure that Ultron couldn’t evolve as Bruce had called it; well it was something she had to do. She couldn’t back out simply because she was afraid or because Tony was worried since this was the first mission Norah would be going on without him being there with her and everyone else. 

“Tony,” Norah said as she looked at the genius billionaire and whatever else he calls himself. “I’m going to Seoul.” She told him in an even tone that didn’t show if she was frightened or not or if she was angry over what Ultron has been doing.

Hearing that Tony looked at her and stopped the swinging motion of the porch swing, “I know that we asked you to come and help us and I’m happy that you are willing to drop everything and help us even though I shouldn’t be asking you to do that, but we’re in deep with this Ultron business. Much more than I was expecting for you to help us with.” Tony told her seriously, his face looking very much like the adult he doesn’t usually act like. “I don’t…I don’t want you to get hurt Norah. You are my daughter. If I’m not there-“

Norah interrupted him before he could continue, “I get that you want to protect me, I do and I love that but you can’t always protect me Tony. I know me doing this with you, especially with how dangerous Ultron is, terrifies you at times since I am in the middle of the crossfire at times but I won’t sit in the sidelines and I won’t be afraid of fighting with my friends and family.” She told him seriously and then looked away from his face and looked out at the horizon where there was not even a hint of light coming over the trees.

“You sound too much like the Cap.” Tony grumbled and then leaned back into the porch swing and crossed his arms across his chest in a childish fashion, there’s the child like adult Norah knew. “I don’t like it.”

“Awwe poor Tony.” Norah said and playfully patted his head as if he was a small child pouting about getting his toy taken away to which he just glared at her and leaned away from her.

For a moment both Norah and Tony just say in silence and listened to the sounds around them; the wind blowing lightly on the trees, the noises of the crickets and bugs and the few wild animals, the birds that were flying or nesting in a tree and they could hear the other’s inside of the house talking quietly so that they did not wake Clint’s children up. 

Turning from the early morning view, Norah looked over at Tony. “Dad,” Norah said and gave a smile when she saw the silly grin on Tony’s face, he did that whenever she called him dad. “I promise to not let the cute Sokovian get to me or let his sister mess with my head again.” She said with a shit eating grin on her face.

When Tony heard Norah say ‘cute Sokovian’ it immediately got his attention, he knew that Norah didn’t date much but knew she’s been on a few dates and has only met one guy out of those and he wasn’t all that great – didn’t like Norah’s independence or her sarcastic attitude. But he didn’t think she was that hard up for a date that she would go for the male Sokovian, Pietro or whatever his name was.

“Norah!” he said and looked at her in a worried/shocked way. “You aren’t doing some sort of weird flirting with him are you? I mean I get he’s probably attractive to someone like you, not me attractive of course, but attractive. And I get that he’s around your age but come on, he’s with Ultron. If this is how you are starting to try and find date’s it’s a real shit way to do it.”

Norah knew she shouldn’t lie to Tony, lying is bad, very bad and God looked down upon it but Norah wasn’t exactly anywhere close to being the religious type and well, sometimes Tony needed to be lied to. Besides, it’s not like she was going to admit to making out with Pietro while they were in South Africa when she was supposed to have been fighting Ultron’s robot minions, yeah, that so would not end well. Of course, Norah had tried to talk to herself after the whole make out session and after Wanda did her stuff to her mind, she tried to tell her after that that she shouldn’t be interested in Pietro, that he wasn’t worth it, that he was with Ultron, that he wasn’t really all that attractive (he was very attractive), that her family would be disappointed but it didn’t really work all that well. She still dreamed about Pietro the night before, all she remembered were lips being pressed against hers, a warm hand pulling her towards him and warm tongue licking her neck. 

Shaking herself out of her mind, Norah looked towards Tony who was giving her a desperate look, and then she giggled at him. “Don’t worry Tony. Siding with Ultron kind of guys are so not my type, be awkward get-togethers and meet the parent dinners would be hell. Yeah, I’ll nope right out of that.” Norah said with a shake of her head and knew, knew deep in her heart that she was lying to herself about all of that. “So no worries, okay?”

“All right.” Tony said as he looked at Norah suspiciously, but when he saw the playful smile and the sincerity in her eyes he figured that she meant what she said. “Don’t get voodooed again kid, be really annoyed with that witch then.” He said to her in a serious tone of voice. “I…I love ya kid.” He said a bit awkwardly, he didn’t get to hear that much growing up from his own father so he had a bit of trouble saying it to anyone else even to Pepper and Norah. 

Norah smiled softly and leaned up and kissed Tony on the cheek, “Love you too old man.” She said to him and just as she was about to close her eyes and sleep until it was time to go Steve walked out with everyone following after him, yep, life just didn’t want to give her a break sometimes. 

Looking at the other’s she saw that they were all wearing their ‘suits’ as Steve has taken to calling their outfits that they wear when going out on a mission, and Norah, well Norah was still wearing what she had been wearing in South Africa: a pair of grey jean shorts that ended about mid-thigh, a pair of wide calf black boots that ended a few inches above mid-calf and her loose fitting turquoise tunic shirt that sleeves went to her elbows. Norah thought of getting an official ‘suit’ for when she did go out on missions with the Avenges but then decided against it, she’s seen Natasha’s various outfits and some of the former SHIELD female agents ‘suits’ and she’d prefer to not wear a cat suit that clung to her like a second skin, and the leather looked unbelievably hot and uncomfortable to move in. Thanks, but no thanks.   
“It’s time.” Steve said as he looked down at where Norah and Tony were sitting and looking very much like a father and daughter. “We’ll meet you back at the tower.” He said as he looked at Tony who gave a nod of affirmation.

Giving a sigh Norah stood up and was about to follow after Steve, Clint and Natasha but Tony held her back and looked her in the eyes for a few moments before pulling her into a tight hug. Confused for a few moments, Norah eventually returned the hug and laid her head in the crook of his neck and breathed in the scent that made her think of home and happiness and family. 

“Come back home safe.” Tony said to her and kissed her forehead. “I mean it. I’ll be very annoyed if you don’t.”

At that Norah gave a small laugh, “I’ll do my best Tony. No promises.” She said and then looked over where the Quinjet was and gave a quick smile to Tony and one more hug before she turned away from Tony and ran to catch up with Natasha, Steve and Clint and headed towards the Quinjet so that they could get moving and get to Seoul before Ultron got too far out of hand with his plan. 

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~ Seoul ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

After realizing what exactly Ultron plan was for the human race – ultimate destruction – Wanda and Pietro left Ultron in Dr. Cho’s lab and headed into the city, when Ultron had approached them he had said that they would get their revenge on Stark for what he did to their parents, he had said that together they would make a better world for humanity but that was not what he intended to do. He wanted to destroy the human race, he said that he would give humans time to evolve but Wanda saw, she saw into that body’s mind and could see what Ultron intended to do.

“Pietro,” Wanda said as they walked close together through the streets of Seoul, intending on blending in and making certain that Ultron would not be able to find them if he decided to come after them but Wanda doubted he would, he wanted to ‘evolve’ as he said and transfer his consciousness into the body that Hellen Cho had created with her cradle. “We must find them, the Avengers. They must know what Ultron’s plan is. We need to help them Pietro.” She told him and looked at him gravely, the things she saw in that body’s mind…..in Ultron’s mind, there was anger, hate, suffering and lastly, destruction of not just the human race but the world. 

When Wanda had said that Pietro looked at his sister seriously, he could not believe that his sister wished to find the Avengers and to tell them of what they had found out from Ultron’s mind and that she also wished to help them, to aide them in defeating and getting rid of Ultron. Finding the Avengers meant finding Tony Stark, the man who had caused Wanda and Pietro’s parents to lose their lives because he did not care who he dealt weapons to be it legal or illegal as long as he was paid a good sum in the end he did not care for the consequences. Tony Stark was a man who both Pietro and Wanda hated but now was not the time to simmer over that, Ultron intended on killing the human race and the only people who had the ability and resources to do just that was the Avengers.

“Wanda-“ Pietro started to say as they turned down the street and walked up the incline the street was situated on.

“No Pietro,” Wanda said and turned to look at him in the eyes, her hazel/brown colored eyes looking into his clear blue colored eyes. “I do not wish to do this either but we must, we must if we want to live, if we want the human race to live. They are the only ones who can help. Even Stark.” She said grudgingly, a look of disgust on her face as she said this. “He will kill us all Pietro,” she said as she looked at him. “You, me…..and that girl you kissed in South Africa.” She said with a knowing look in her eyes. “All of us will be dead if we do not do something and we do not have the means to destroy Ultron by ourselves, not to mention he has many of those metal bodies working for him and fighting for him. We would be dead before we even started to fight. We need to help them.” 

Pietro stopped himself from saying anything and instead looked at his sister and studied her for a moment and saw how serious she was about this, about finding the Avengers and helping them take down Ultron. No matter how much Pietro did not wish to be in the same vicinity as the man who had gotten his parents killed along with many other people in Sokovia because of his greed, Pietro knew in his heart that it was the only way to end this mission of Ultron’s. 

“I do not like this,” Pietro said with a sigh as he and his sister continued walking. “But it is the only way, I know.” He said to her with a tone of resignation at the fact that they were going to help the Avengers and were going to be helping Tony Stark.

As far as Pietro was concerned the only silver lining in deciding to help the Avengers with Ultron was the fact that Norah was a part of the Avengers and wherever they were she would be. Perhaps if he could manage to sneak himself and Norah away from prying eyes without anyone noticing he could have another chance at having a bit of alone time with her so that he could taste her lips once again and tangle his fingers into her wild curly blonde hair. 

“Pietro,” Wanda said gaining his attention, she lifted a brow at her and gave a half amused smile before gesturing towards the sidewalk they were on. “Let’s continue. We do not have much time to waste.” She spoke as she pulled him by his arm and continued walking.

It was but fifteen minutes later when both Pietro and Wanda had stopped in front of a vendor who was selling all sorts of different vegetables, but it wasn’t the produce that they were interested in but rather the small TV that was set up beside it and what was displayed on the TV. There on the small TV that looked to be from the eighties at least was Captain America fighting Ultron along with a few of the metal robots that Ultron had created, and beside the semi that they were fighting on was a train. Before either sibling was able to say someone to one and another there was a sudden presence behind them that grasped both of them by one arm and harshly turned the two around to face whoever it was that had grabbed them. There standing in front of them was the girl, Norah, that Pietro seemed to be utterly fascinated by and she was glaring at the twins and a snarl on her lips. 

“Where in the hell is Ultron?” Norah demanded as she looked up at Wanda and Pietro who were both a bit taller than her, Pietro especially who Norah knew was at least close to being six feet tall. “What is he planning? Did he-“

“We have left him.” Wanda spoke up, interrupting Norah’s interrogation of the two of them. “We have decided to come to the Avengers, to help.” She told her simply and to the point. 

At that Norah couldn’t help but let a scoff escape from her mouth at the thought of Pietro and Wanda wanting to join up with the Avengers and help them in defeating Ultron who, with the help of the twins, have been causing problems since Tony unintentionally created the murder bot. “Oh, really?” she questioned as she crossed her arms under her chest. “And why exactly should I believe that?” she asked as she looked over at Wanda expectantly, waiting for an explanation. 

Pietro tried his best to not look and watch as Norah had crossed her arms under her chest which resulted in her very well endowed area to be pushed together that much more and make her breasts look bigger than it actually was, really, he did try but he couldn’t seem to pull his eyes away from her chest and remember having her pressed up against him while they had kissed in South Africa. But he was male after all, it was in his blood to stare.

“Hey, Speedy.” Norah said catching Pietro’s attention who reluctantly tore his gaze away from her breasts and looked at her unabashed at being caught staring. “My eyes are up here.” She said and gestured to her dark brown colored eyes and shook her head at him. “Men.” She uttered with a heavy sigh and then looked at Wanda instead. “Tell me why I should believe that you and your brother want to help us now instead of being on the crazy pants murder crazy robots side?” 

When Wanda heard the skepticism that was in Norah’s voice she could not fault her for it, her and Pietro had been fighting against her and her friend’s and she had also made Norah remember a horrific time in her life which she should never have had to relieve again. 

“He forced the woman, Hellen Cho, to create a body for him with that cradle of hers.” Wanda said to Norah as she looked into the blonde haired girls’ eyes pleadingly, silently begging for her to understand. “I was able to look into this body they created for Ultron, they were transferring his conscious into the body and I saw what he was intending to do to the human race. I looked into his mind and all I saw was destruction, not of just you and Avengers or the human race but the world. There was fire and explosions, screaming. Everyone is dead when he is done.” Wanda said solemnly and hoped the future that she saw in Ultron’s mind did not come true. 

Norah felt conflicted at the moment, she wasn’t sure what to say, what to do or what to believe with this whole new situation with Wanda and Pietro. They are telling her that they want to help the Avengers take down Ultron when just a day or so ago they were fighting against them in South Africa, it’s making things complicating for her. If she wanted to Norah could just Blink out of there if she thought that they were lying to her but she didn’t feel as if they were lying, as if they were trying to trick her or lure her into a false sense of security. No, Wanda was looking at her intently and hopefully, she wanted to help the Avengers even if Tony was with them. 

“Moj mali bik, please let us help your Avengers.” Pietro said as he stepped forward and gently caressed the side of her face with the back of his hand, for a moment Norah had to steady her breath and tell herself that she’s only known Pietro for a short time and to not do anything rash or stupid, to not pull a Tony.   
Stepping back from Pietro, Norah pointed her finger at him and glared. “Bad. Bad Pietro.” She said with narrowed eyes which only made Pietro grin at her and give her a look of amusement. “Stop doing that weird flirting thing.”

At that Pietro raised a brow at her, “You do same.” He said to her as he leaned down a bit and looked into her dark eyes. “You tease and flirt, do not say you don’t. I know.” He told her.

While her brother and Norah were flirting, because no matter how much Norah tried to she couldn’t deny the fact that they were flirting shamelessly, Wanda watched the two interact and couldn’t help but give a small amused smile at the two and how they seemed to banter and tease one and another. Seeing and hearing them talk with one another made it quite obvious why her brother seemed to be s attracted and drawn to this American girl – she challenged him and kept him on his toes. When Pietro had first ran back to her back on Sokovia and told her of this girl…of Norah, she had thought that Pietro was just curious and fascinated with Norah because she had powers like they did except hers were not given to her because of a Scepter as both Wanda and Pietro had received theirs, but he seemed to enjoy the teasing and bantering that they did and seemed to be drawn to Norah in general and not just the fact that she had powers. At that realization Wanda could not help but shake her head, only her brother would have something such as this happen while being in a possibly life threatening situation. 

“Samo što bi se naći neko privlači , a mi se borimo.” Wanda said offhand to her brother who gave her a sarcastic smile.

Hearing Wanda speak in their native tongue Norah directed a slightly annoyed look directed at the twins, she may be a linguist and was fluent in a handful of languages but the language of Sokovia was not in her armory of known languages. “Tudod, ez elég durva, hogy beszéljen más nyelven előtt valaki, aki nem érti meg.” She said to them sassily in Hungarian to which both Wanda and Pietro furrowed their brows in confusion at not understanding the language that Norah just spoke. 

Norah was about to say something else to Wanda and Pietro when she caught sight of the TV and her eyes widened almost comically when she saw what was playing out on the screen; Steve was on a moving semi while fighting Ultron with all he had but without warning Ultron grabbed Steve and then threw him unceremoniously off of the semi and into the side of a fast moving train that was passing beside them and then he jumped into the train as well to continue fighting the super soldier. 

When Wanda and Pietro saw the look on Norah’s face they both turned a bit to see what exactly was on the TV that was making her act in such a way, it took them only moments to comprehend what they were seeing. Captain America fighting Ultron, no matter how strong Captain America may be and no matter all that he has been able to endure thus far there was no way that he would be able to survive all that long in a fight with Ultron, at least not by himself. He needed some sort of backup if he wanted to keep himself being killed or seriously injured by Ultron and it seemed that the only ones who were capable of doing so at the moment were Norah, Pietro and Wanda. 

“We must leave this place,” Wanda said to her two companions quietly as she continued staring at the TV screen where the fight between Captain America and Ultron was being shown. “We need to get to the train, fast.” She said as she finally pulled her gaze from the screen and then looked from Norah to Pietro, two of the only people who would be able to get them to that train in a very short amount of time.

Pietro looked at his sister and then the woman who captured his attention from the moment he met her, “I do not know how we get there, I can carry one but I do not know about two people. I’ve never tried before.” He admitted to the two of them, confliction in their eyes. 

Looking at Wanda and Pietro for a moment and then turning her attention to the TV Norah made a decision that more than likely would be considered completely stupid and insane by most people. While living at Xavier’s for a few short years Norah had learned a thing or two about powers and the science behind them; she learned from Xavier and jean Grey that powers first appeared either during a traumatic event or during puberty, but once that happened and once a person was able to get a good handle on controlling their powers that eventually powers had the ability to grow and evolve from what they already could do. Norah knew that her powers were intense and very powerful and were very useful, it wasn’t often that there were Mutant’s that had the ability to move from one place to another and the only other Mutant that Norah knew of was Nightcrawler who more so puffed/popped to another place with an audible sound and smell of doing so, every time he did so there would be the smell of sulfur in the air. She had been seven when she first figured out that she could transport herself from one place to another with a bit of concentration but after a few years of practicing Norah had a good hold on how to use her power almost without having to even think about it, but she wondered if like so many other Mutant’s powers if hers too had the ability to change and to become something more. What if she concentrated and practiced that she would have the ability to transport herself to places that she’s not just seen and been to with her own two eyes but what if she could go somewhere that she has seen on a computer screen or on a cell phone. What if she could look at a picture of Fiji or Bora Bora on the computer screen and then Blink herself there even though she’s never been there before in her life. 

“Then what-“ Wanda began to say but was cut off by Norah.

“There’s something I can try.” Norah said as she pulled her eyes from the TV and looked at the twins who were giving her a curious look. “It’s something that I’ve never really tried to do or thought of attempting to do before. I’ve always thought that my power of Blinking from one place to another was limited, that I had to see and be at the place with my own two eyes to be able to Blink myself there but sometimes I forget what I learned at my school – powers evolve. Mutants’ powers evolve the older they get, the more skill we gain from practicing with our powers the closer we are to evolving our power into something more.” She explained to them a bit nervously at what she was hinting to them, something that she was not completely certain that she’d be able to pull off. 

Pietro cocked his head to the side and looked at Norah in confusion, “What are you talking of?” he questioned her. 

Norah nodded her head at the TV, “I’m going to try and Blink us from here to inside of that train.” She told them and gave what she hoped was a confident smile. “Obviously I’ve never tried this before so I can’t be sure that it will work….hopefully nothing bad happens.” She told them which made both Wanda and Pietro give her panic laced looks at that statement, okay so she probably shouldn’t have said that last part out loud. Oh well. “Give me your hands.” She urged and saw the hesitation in their eyes, hesitant to go through with what Norah was about to try. “Look, we don’t really have much of a choice right now. We need to get there as fast as we can and Pietro can’t take both of us and well, this is the next best thing. Now, give me your hands and hold on tight.” She said as she looked at Wanda who seemed them most hesitant to do as Norah was suggesting. 

Seeing the hesitant on Wanda’s face Norah took matters into her own hands and clutched Wanda’s hand tightly so that there was no way for her to let go and then laced her fingers through Pietro’s tightly and shook her head at Wanda who acted as if she was going to accidentally split them in half mid Blink or something. As far as Norah knows that isn’t possible to have happen. Taking a calming breath, Norah prayed to all and any gods and goddesses in existence that this would work, that she would be able to Blink herself, Wanda and Pietro from their spot in some random street in Seoul to the train that Ultron had just shoved Steve through. There was no other choice really, this needed to work otherwise Norah wasn’t so sure that Steve would come out of the fight on his own two feet. With that thought in mind Norah stared intently at the TV screen that the street vendor had situated next to his stand and it took all her willpower to not blink while staring at it, it only took moments of staring before Norah felt that familiar uncomfortable tugging and pulling sensation in her chest that signaled she was moving from one place to another. 

The next thing that the three of them knew was that they were standing inside of the train that they had just seen on the TV, as great of a feat this was and how amazed at herself as Norah was she couldn’t help but crumple to the ground the second she had her two feet on solid ground. It had been an exhausting and draining experience to do what she just did and bringing two other people along with her at that. 

When Pietro saw that Norah had fallen to the ground he wasted no time in bending down and standing her back on her feet before she had even comprehended what was happening. “Are you all right?” Pietro asked as he looked down into Norah’s face and saw the bit of exhausting and pain that were playing in her dark eyes. 

“Yeah. I’m fine.” Norah said waving his concern away, as much as she appreciated it now was not the time to worry about anything but helping Steve fight against Ultron. “Go. Help Steve. I’ll be fine.” She told him sounding a bit winded from the feat that she had just preformed.

“Are you-“ Pietro began as he looked at her in concern but before he was able to utter more than two words Norah poked him hard in the chest, annoyed that he wasn’t doing as she suggested. 

Glaring at Pietro, Norah pushed him a bit away from her and gestured towards the other end of the train where they could hear the fight happening at. “Now’s not the time Pietro.” She told him testily. “Go and help Steve, I’ve been through worse. Trust me. Now go.” She all but yelled at him and forcefully pushed him towards the direction he needed to run and wondered why he was so concerned for her, he hasn’t even known her all that long. 

Leaning against the seats of the train Norah did her best to try and catch her breath after exerting that much energy and effort to bring herself, Wanda and Pietro to the train where Ultron was. As much as Norah wished she could just sit down in one of cushioned seats of the train and relax for a moment she knew that she couldn’t, there wasn’t exactly time to do so and Ultron was trying to kill one of her close friends and it would put a pretty big damper on her life if he ended up getting killed. So yeah, no time for resting. 

“Come on.” Wanda said as she approached Norah and gently grasped her by the elbow and helped her into a standing position and let her lean her weight on her a bit. “We cannot let the men have all the fun.” She joked which earned a wry smile from Norah. 

So carefully and as fast as they could Norah and Wanda made their way through the train, past the terrified passengers and past the damage that had already been done by the fight between Ultron and Steve. When the girls had finally made it to the train cart that Steve, Ultron and Pietro were fighting in they saw a blur as Pietro ran at Ultron and knocked him into the wall of the train before he had a chance to attack Steve once again who was looking a bit worse for wear. Wanda had gained Ultron’s attention by hitting him with her red wisps of energy or voodoo as Tony liked to call it, and pushed him forcefully into the side of the train and glared at him for what he was doing now, for wanting to kill off the human race. 

“Please,” Ultron said in a softer tone of voice as he looked at Wanda pleadingly, the one who he had thought would be more than willing to join his side, more than even her brother who was blinded by wanting to protect his sister and keep her safe even if it was from Ultron. “Don’t do this.” He said as he eyed the floating railing that Wanda was using in a protective fashion in case he decided to attack her and Norah who was standing a bit behind Wanda, a tired look covering her face. 

Wanda gave Ultron a look of disgust, “What choice do we have?” she questioned him. 

Before any of them had a chance to do or say much of anything else Ultron raised his hand towards the end of the train where Pietro had been standing, who, when he noticed what Ultron was doing sped out of the way and slammed himself onto the benches as Ultron blew a hole out of the back and flew out heading toward wherever it was that he and the rest of his metal robot army were holed up at. 

Steve quickly ran over to the hole and looked out to see if he had a chance at going after Ultron but there was no way that he would be able to follow after him, he may be a super soldier but he couldn’t fly. It was then that Steve noticed that the train wasn’t slowing down in the least and he could only assume that either the conductor of the train was knocked unconscious or had been killed by Ultron. 

“Cap,” Clint said through the ear comms. “You seen Nat?” 

“If you have the package get it to Stark. Go.” Steve said rather than answering his teammates question, the truth was he had no idea where Natasha was and he knew Clint well enough to know that he would go looking for her if he knew for certain that they didn’t know where she was. 

“Do you have eyes on Nat?” Clint asked more insistently this time, a tone of panic in his voice that made Norah cringe.

Steve sighed, “Just go Clint!” he said forcefully, commanding Clint to do as he asked.

Once Steve heard an affirmative from Clint that he was heading back to New York to get the cradle to Stark, he turned back to where Wanda, Norah and Pietro were standing and furrowed his brows a bit in confusion when he saw that Norah was standing with them in a non-hostile manner, acting as if she felt as ease being around them even after everything that they had done in South Africa. As much as Steve wanted answers on that development he knew that now was not the time to do so, they were on a speeding train that went off the tracks and was not heading towards innocent civilians who were in danger of being crushed. 

“Civilians in our path.” Steve said and looked first at Norah and then at Pietro both of whom would be able to get the civilians to safety before the train had a chance to injure and/or kill them. 

Norah gave a heavy sight when Steve had looked at her expectantly, waiting for her to Blink herself off of the train and down to the ground where the people were in the way of the train. With an exhausted look thrown at Steve who was waiting for her to do as he was urging her to do with his eyes, Norah Blinked herself off of the train and to the ground to make sure no one got pancaked so to say by the speeding train. Out of the corner of her eye Norah could also see that Pietro was down on the ground with her speeding his way from one side to the other pulling the people that Norah couldn’t get to out of the way and to safety. 

Norah knew without a doubt that she had overextended herself, she could feel it in her bones and in her very being that she had pushed herself much too far that day and knew that it would only be a matter of time before her body would shut itself down from how much energy it had taken to do what she did that day and would force her into unconsciousness. She hoped against hope that it would at least wait until she was back in New York where she would be able to pass out in her own bed rather than right there in Seoul in front of Steve, Pietro and Wanda. 

Once they had finally been able to stop the train Norah ignored the people who were filing out of the train hurriedly, thankful that they had made it off without being killed by the crazy robot. Tiredly, Norah made her way away from the train and leaned up against a wall of some building that was near and closed her eyes for a moment, she was so, so, so, so tired and just wanted to close her eyes for a moment and rest so that she could recover a bit of her energy. Norah felt the air shift around her and suddenly felt a hand grasping her fingers gently for a moment, with a lot of effort on her part Norah opened her eyes and looked beside her and saw that Pietro was sitting on some crate beside her and was leaning forwards from the effort it took to move all of the people out of the way of the train. 

“Are…you…all right?” Pietro asked out of breath as he looked over at Norah who he could see was fighting a battle to stay upright and keep her eyes open. 

Norah took a few breaths before she released her hand from Pietro’s and pushed herself into a more upright position against the wall and nodded to Pietro’s question. “I’m fine, promise. Just tired, that was a lot of Blinking and I haven’t really used it that many times in a row for a while.” She told him as she tried to breathe in evenly. 

Yep, Norah so was not going out try and do that whole looking at a TV or a picture from the internet and trying to Blink to wherever it was again, not for a good long while at least. That was moderately painful and draining, not to mention it gave her a hell of a head ache that was leaning more so towards being a migraine and she’d rather not go through this in the future. 

“Pietro,” Wanda said as she approached where Norah and her brother were and then gently laid her hands on her brother’s slumped shoulders in a worried fashion. 

Pietro grasped at one of her hands that were on his shoulder and squeezed it in a comforting gesture, “I’m fine. I just need to take a minute.” He said to her slowly as he still tried to control his erratic breathing. 

“I’m very tempted to not give you one.” Steve said as he came up to where the twins and Norah were. 

Wanda left her brother’s side and approached Steve, “The cradle, did you get it?” asked worriedly, hoping that after all of the trouble that they had just went through that Ultron didn’t succeed in taking the cradle to wherever it is that he and his metal army were.

“Stark will take care of it.” Steve told her shortly, he didn’t trust Wanda or Pietro in any fashion and he was trying to understand why Norah seemed to be at ease with them or why she was with them in the first place when she had appeared on the train…he just didn’t understand and he really didn’t have time to try and think of the different reasons why Norah would be with them. 

Hearing that Wanda’s heart dropped and she shook her head at the super soldier that was standing in front of her, “No, no he won’t.” she said to him in a solemn tone of voice as a dark look came over her face and thought of all of the possibilities of things that Stark would do with the cradle in his possession. 

“You don’t know what you’re talking about, Stark’s not crazy.” Steve said as he was looking at him as if he had just told her that the apocalypse was on them – which with Ultron could be very true.

Steve looked over at Norah and was about to tell her to tell them that Stark wouldn’t do such a thing as Wanda was suggestion but the blonde haired girl looked completely exhausted and out of it, as if she was about to pass out right then and there.

“He will do anything to make it right.” Wanda said as she shook her head at Steve and at how much he seems to believe that Stark will do the right thing but it was Tony Stark, he would not do as Steve hoped no matter how good of a heart he had at times. 

Giving a heavy sight Norah pushed herself away from the wall she was leaning on for support and walked up next to Wanda and looked Steve in the eye, “Steve, you know that I love Tony like a father, he’s the father I wished I would have had when I was younger and I more than appreciate all that he has done for me and love that he treats me like a daughter and accepted me even though I’m a Mutant.” She told him and thought of how Tony really didn’t give a rat’s ass that she had powers, one of which that had the possibility of being dangerous to everyone and everything around her. “But I’m not stupid Steve. I know Tony; I know how he thinks, how he works, I know the sort of person he is and I know how eccentric he is and when he puts his mind to doing something that he thinks is for the good of the world nothing will stop him from making it happen. And if he fucks up bad, like this,” she said and gestured to the wreckage of the train that was behind them. “He will try and make it right.”

“Norah,” Steve said as he looked at her in the eyes. “He wouldn’t put-“

Before he could say anything Norah shook her head, “Steve, I love Tony and I know he sees me as the daughter he never knew he wanted and that he would do anything to protect me but this is putting not just me in danger – something he doesn’t realize at the moment – but he is putting everyone in danger, he’s going to try and put that body that Ultron created for himself to use. He’s a Stark Steve, he can’t help himself. It’s too tempting for him to toy with it.” 

For a moment Steve looked between Wanda and Norah, both of whom were suggesting the same thing and Steve wanted to believe that they were both wrong, he could believe that Wanda was wrong without any problems but Norah….Norah knew Tony, she’s lived with Tony for nearly three years and is Tony’s daughter no matter what blood or papers say. She knew Tony just as well as Pepper did and he couldn’t deny what she was saying, he couldn’t say that it didn’t make sense and that Tony wouldn’t do something like she was suggesting. 

“Stark, come in.” Steve said suddenly into his ear comm and waited a few moments for a response but nothing came in. “Stark. Anyone on comms?” he questioned and then sighed when he realized that no one was answering him and that Wanda and Norah were right in what they were saying, Tony was going to do something completely stupid and irrational with the cradle. 

Wanda looked Steve in the eye, “Ultron can’t tell the difference between saving the world and destroying it. Who do you think he gets that from?” she asked him rhetorically, a brow raised. 

Steve gave a sigh at that and hated, hated that they were right and the fact that he was always suspicious if Tony would do something with the cradle but instead of making plans to ensure that nothing like that would happen he believed that Tony would do the right thing, he would make sure that the body that was created for Ultron would be destroyed so that it wouldn’t be able to do any sort of damage. Things had gone from bad to worse in a matter of days and from the feel of it they were about to get worse still.

“Norah,” Steve said as he turned his attention to her and frowned when he actually saw how truly tired and exhausted and spent she look, she looked like she could barely stand on her two feet but as much as he would rather not ask this of her, they needed to. “Can you get us to the Tower, we don’t have much time to spare and I know you’re tired and I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t have to but we need to get there as soon as possible.” He said to her with the look of regret on his face for having to ask this of Norah.

For a few moments Norah looked at Steve blearily and tried to comprehend what he was saying to her but damn it, she was too damn tired and exhausted from trying something new with her power which she didn’t even think would work. As much as she wanted to tell Steve yes, that she could help him and get them back to the tower before Clint and the cradle arrived she couldn’t, she could barely stand up straight at the moment let alone Blink herself, Wanda, Pietro and Steve all the way back to New York from Seoul. 

“Norah?” Steve questioned, looking at her in concern as did Pietro and Wanda.

Shaking her head, Norah look at Steve apologetically. “I’m sorry Steve but I…I can’t.” she said to him saying her words at a much slower pace than was normal for her. “I’ve used too much energy and I’m..I’m so tired. I can’t even keep myself up right now Steve, let alone try and get us back to the tower. Sorry, I’m o-“

Suddenly, Norah stopped midsentence and looked around her in panic and blinked her eyes rapidly a few times and tried to speak and say something but before Steve, Wanda or Pietro were able to ask her what was wrong and if she was okay she suddenly slumped forwards in a fall. The last thing Norah remembered before falling completely unconscious was the sound of Steve yelling at the twins accusing them of doing something to her that made her fall unconscious and feeling Pietro’s arms going around her waist before she fell to the hard ground of Seoul and hearing him saying something to her in Sokovian.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Translations
> 
> Moj mali bik: my little bull

“Norah!” Pietro said in a panic when Norah had begun to fall to the ground in unconsciousness and quickly ran forward and grabbed her up into his arms before she had a chance to hit the ground. “Norah. Moj mali bik. You tire self, silly girl.” He said as he adjusted her in his arms so that she now was laying in his arms bridal style. 

“What the hell happened to her?” Steve asked with a dark glare on his face as he looked at Pietro. “What did you two do to her?” he accused and attempted to step towards Pietro in a threatening manner and to take Norah from his arms but before he had a chance to do so red wisps of energy stopped him in place. 

Wanda had her hands held up level with Steve’s chest and was glaring at him heatedly, “Do not accuse us of something, you do not know story.” She said to him fiercely. “We did not do anything to her. Do you think we would have offered our help if we wanted to hurt her or you?” she questioned him with a pointed look. 

Steve knew that both Wanda and Pietro had helped him when they did not need to, they had no ties to him or Norah or any of the Avengers but nonetheless they put their lives on the line to help him with Ultron, to help him get the civilians out of the way of the derailed train and they had helped him stop the train from going any further and hurting anymore people. They did not need to do any of those things but for some odd reason, for some unexplainable reason Pietro and Wanda Maximoff decided to fight against Ultron instead of being in his side like they had been in their previous altercation. 

Even though Steve knew that they were now on their side, that they were willing to fight against Ultron and wanted to take him down as well Steve couldn’t help but worry and make assumptions of the two Sokovian’s when Norah suddenly passed out in front of him. He knew that Norah could fight and has seen her do so first hand and has even sparred against her once in a great while when he had gone to the New York SHIELD office and Steve also knows that she is pretty skilled with her powers and that he shouldn’t worry about her but he couldn’t help it, it was ingrained in his very being to worry about her and want to protect her. He was a true 1940’s boy and couldn’t help himself. Besides, if Tony found out that he let Norah get hurt on a mission he’d end up getting skinned alive. 

“Then what happened?” Steve demanded as looked over at the unconscious Norah whose hair was spilling over the side of Pietro’s arm. “Norah has had her powers for almost a decade, Blinking as much as she did would not have done this to her.” He said and stumbled forward a bit when Wanda had finally decided to release him from her power and allowing him to move freely once again, at least she didn’t use her power to mess with his mind this time. “So tell me what exactly happened then?”

Pietro looked down into Norah’s face for a moment and furrowed his brow at the fact that she had a pain filled expression on her face even while unconscious; shaking his head at that fact he pulled his eyes from Norah’s face and towards Steve who was looking between him and his sister expectantly, waiting for an answer. “It was not our fault. We all saw TV, saw you and Ultron fighting and we knew we must get to you soon or else Ultron would end up killing you.” He started to explain, it was hard to believe that he and Wanda had joined Ultron for the greater good, to help the world become a better place but Ultron’s idea of it ended up being the extinction of the human race and eventually, the world. “I have only tried carrying one person with me, I have never tried two and I don’t think I could have. I couldn’t take one and leave the other, we need both of them to help us fight and I wasn’t sure if Ultron’s metal army were waiting to attack either.”

Steve looked at Pietro and saw how he was looking at Norah and narrowed his eyes at the younger man, Bucky used to look at girls like that and that made Steve suspicious of Pietro that much more. “What does that have to do with anything?” he questioned impatiently. 

Usually Steve was the most patient of the Avengers and the most level headed one but after seeing how Natasha was after Wanda messed with her head and after what they had made Hulk do to that city in South Africa, well it’s safe to say that he didn’t trust them one lick. In fact if they hadn’t of helped them he would have probably called in back up or found a way to subdue them until he could have gotten them back to Stark Tower so that they could be questioned. 

“Norah used her power, the…Blinking you call it I think.” Wanda said this time as she looked into Steve’s eyes. “She said she was going to get us from that street that we were watching that TV on, to there on the train. She said it was something she’s never done before and that she didn’t know if it would work. She did it, but it drained her.” She explained to him.

“Helping those people get out of way of train did not help either.” Pietro added as he looked at Steve with narrowed eyes, as if he blamed Steve for Norah being unconscious simply because he asked her to use her power to help the innocent bystanders that were in the path of the train. 

At that Steve sighed and ran his hands over his head, “I didn’t know. I could see she was tired…exhausted but we didn’t have the time to deal with that, we’ve got Ultron to deal with we don’t have time to be tired right now.” He explained as he looked over at Norah’s prone form regretfully at the fact he didn’t notice how truly exhausted and tired she was. 

For a few moments after that was said none of them said much of anything, they were unsure what they should say and seemed to be at an impasse so to say. On one hand Pietro and Wanda had been on Ultron’s side, fighting for him and helping him take the Avenger’s down and doing his bidding basically, and now, now they were wanting to help the Avenger’s to take Ultron down, they had helped Steve when Ultron seemed close to beating him into nothing but a pulp and they hadn’t run away once the danger of Ultron was gone. Steve could understand why they had decided to volunteer for Strucker’s experiments and why they had joined Ultron too; all Pietro and Wanda wanted was freedom and peace for their country and Strucker was the first one who offered them a way to do that. He lured them in by telling them that if they volunteered for these experiments of his and survived that they would be different, better, and would be able to do give their country what it deserved. Ultron on the other hand had promised them a better world for not just one and another but for everyone and he had promised them the extinction of the Avenger’s which included Tony Stark who they blamed full heartedly for the death of their parents. It was easy to see how they were tricked and conned into doing what they had. 

As much as Steve didn’t trust either of the twins and really wished he could deny them helping him and the other’s he knew that he couldn’t, the two of them were much too valuable to him and the team and were needed if they wanted to get rid of Ultron. The Avengers needed everyone that they could get to even have a glimmer of a chance of defeating Ultron; Norah and her powers, Wanda and Pietro and their abilities, Bruce, Thor, Natasha, Steve, Clint and Tony. They were all needed. 

“We must find way to New York, to…Stark’s.” Pietro said reluctantly, a grimace on his face at the thought of having to be in the same room with Tony Stark and having to work on the same side as him but at the present moment he didn’t have a choice, they needed to work together. 

Steve wasn’t sure what to do at the moment really, with Norah out of action for who knows how long they didn’t exactly have a way to get back to Stark Tower. If they didn’t get back to the tower as soon as possible there was no telling what Tony would be doing to the body that Cho made for Ultron….what kind of experiments he would be trying. Hopefully, hopefully they would be able to find a way there and stop Stark from doing something incredibly stupid and idiotic. Last time that happened he created Ultron. 

“Hellen Cho.” Steve said in realization, Hellen Cho had a jet for when the Avengers needed her for emergency injuries like Clint’s side injury from what must have been maybe five or so days ago. 

Wanda looked at Steve curiously, “What does she have to do with this? Can she help us get there?” she asked, hope shining in her eyes that maybe they won’t be too late in stopping Tony. 

“She won’t want to help us, we were with Ultron.” Pietro said gloomily with a hard look on his face, he sincerely doubted the doctor would want to help them even if they did release her from the mind control that was making her help Ultron. 

“She will.” Steve said simply but with confidence in his voice that he’s been lacking since the incident in South Africa. “She’ll help us, I know she will.” 

Both Pietro and Wanda looked towards one and another and seemed to have a quick and silent conversation that was mostly filled with facial expressions and head nods and shakes, it looked as if they were arguing with one and another if they should go with Steve and trust him. They weren’t stupid, they didn’t live a horrible life but they did not live an easy life either and were suspicious of Steve and his intentions, for all they knew he may just be taking them back to the tower so that he and the others could attack them not that it would do much good, Wanda could use her power to get away and Pietro is too fast to really be attacked. 

“Lead the way.” Wanda said as she gestured towards the street where the police were starting to arrive and ask people questions on what had happened. 

When Wanda had said that Steve moved forwards towards Pietro, fully intending on taking Norah from his arms but before he had the chance to do so Pietro had suddenly appeared on the other side of his sister and away from Steve who had frowned at the action. Steve narrowed his eyes at Pietro and looked more closely at the younger man, he didn’t like that he was holding Norah even if she did seem to be at ease standing close to him like she had been on the train, it….was unsettling. 

Pietro smirked at Steve when he saw how much it bothered the man that he was holding Norah, “I carry her, you can lead us.” He told him and couldn’t help but give a wide grin when Steve’s eyes narrowed even more.  
“Come on.” Steve said shortly and abruptly turned from Pietro and Wanda and began to make the walk towards Hellen Cho’s office and hoped that she would be willing to let them use her jet to get back to New York. 

~_~_~_~_~_~_~.~_~_~_~_~_~.~_~_~_~_~.~_~_~_~_~_~_~._~_~_~

One thing that Norah decided about falling unconscious because she decided to do something stupid and try to do something new with her power and overexert herself was the fact that it felt an awful lot like a day after drinking with a bunch of college football players….not that she’s really ever done that in her life, she’s more so of the artistic persuasion. Even though she didn’t go out for a night of drinking it sure felt as if she had the hangover from hell along with achy muscles and everything, so not fair. If she was going to feel this horrible waking up she’d rather at least have the fun from drinking something alcoholic and not having it be from her powers. 

Giving a small groan of pain when Norah had attempted to sit up from whatever it was that she was lying on – she assumed a bench or a couch – but before she was even a quarter of the way up a gentle but firm hand pushed her back down she that she was lying on her back once again. Giving a huff of annoyance Norah instead decided to try and open her eyes, first she tried to open one eye and squinted at the pain that the brightness that the inside of the jet was giving her at the moment……definitely felt like a hangover. After a few moments Norah had fully adjusted both of her eyes to the brightens and turned her head and saw that it was Wanda and Pietro who were sitting beside her in a pair of chairs, it was more than likely one of those two had forced her to lay back down on the couch. 

“Hello.” Wanda said with a soft smile when she saw that Norah had her dark brown eyes opened and was looking between her and her brother at the moment. 

For a few moments Norah just blinked at the two before she finally was able to muster a response, “Ughh, hi.” She said in a very unladylike fashion, Tony would be so proud of her. “How long have I been out? Please tell me I didn’t miss kicking the murder crazy robots ass? I’m going to be very annoyed if I did, I may even throw a temper tantrum.” She joked as she gave a small pain filled smile; she wanted an Advil right now for her pulsing head.   
Pietro couldn’t help but let an amused chuckle escape his lips, “No moj mali bik, you didn’t miss us killing the murder crazy robots as you said.” He told her with a small smile on his face as he reached forward and pushed a stray piece of curly hair out of her face and behind her pierced ears. “Would not be as fun without you, you make life interesting, yes?” he said as he peered down into her dark brown eyes that seemed to be polar opposite from his clear blue eyes. 

Wanda watched her brother as he spoke to Norah and shook her head, it amazed her how intensely he looked at the stubborn blonde haired girl and how he spoke to her. It was no secret that neither Pietro or Wanda let themselves get close to many people, they were both too afraid that they would just end up either dying or leaving them in the end and so it was ultimately easier to keep people at a distance instead. The only time Pietro had really interacted with other people who were not other protestors or Wanda was when he was interested in a girl, but this…this thing he seemed to have with Norah was different then the few and far between times when Pietro had spent time with a female in Sokovia. He did not expect more than a few outings with them, none had really understood the relationship he had with Wanda and how she meant more to him than anything else, but with Norah he seemed to want more even if it has only been a few days of knowing her. It was as if Pietro was surrounded by darkness and Norah is the shining light leading him somewhere. 

Wanda had looked into Norah’s mind while she had been unconscious and what she saw amazed her. Norah felt something for Pietro even though she had only known him for a handful of days, she saw that Norah felt as if something from deep inside of her was pulling her towards Pietro and making it impossible for her to try and not think about him when she knew that her friends – the Avengers – would not approve seeing as he had been with Ultron at that time. Wanda could also see that Norah has never felt something so intense towards someone she felt attraction for before, that none of her previous boyfriend had ever made her feel so alive as Pietro did for her. No matter what way she looked at it Wanda couldn’t understand why the two of them felt that way towards one and another when they hadn’t met that long ago but she could see it in both of their minds and at how they looked and acted towards one and another, she could see how they felt for one and another. It wasn’t love, love at first sight was a child’s idea that didn’t fit into the real world but there was definitely something there between the two of them, something that made it seem as if they could fit together if they give it time. 

“You have been unconscious for about three and a half hours.” Wanda told the curly blonde haired girl that was laid out in front of her and her brother. “You scared Captain half to death; he accused us of doing something that made you pass out.” She said with a wry smile on her face at how Steve had overreacted. 

Hearing that Norah rolled her eyes in a teenage manner and then gave a heavy sigh, “He always acts like an overprotective mother hen when it comes to me no matter how many times I’ve told him that I can take care of myself. I’ve proved him wrong more than a few times too.” She told them and crossed her arms in annoyance under her chest the best she could from her laying down position. “I’m starting to consider hitting him upside the head every time he starts to overreact, maybe it’ll sink in then.” She grumbled as she glared over towards where the cockpit of the jet was and where she assumed Steve was at the moment. 

Wanda gave an uncharacteristic giggle at imagining Captain America being hit and beaten up by a girl like Norah who barely topped five foot four and looked unassuming, “He worries for you,” Wanda said to her, understanding where Steve was coming from and looked at her brother for a moment before turning her eyes back to Norah. “It is good thing. It shows he cares.” She said as she looked towards the front of the jet and pushed herself into a standing position. “I will go and tell him that you are awake. He will want to talk to you.” She said to her.

Norah smirked at that, “Talk or yell? There’s a difference you know.” She pointed out to her. 

Rather than answering, Wanda smiled at Norah in amusement before she turned and headed towards where Steve was. Steve really did act like a mother hen to Norah at times and god did it get beyond annoying, even after showing him she can take care of herself, even after having him see what she could do with her powers and telling him he needed to stop worrying and hovering so much he still acted as if he had to save her from every single attack. She got that he was from the 1940’s and it was ingrained in him to protect women but this was not the 1940’s anymore; Norah was a strong and independent woman who doesn’t need to be protected from every single damn thing. 

“So,” Norah said as she looked over at Pietro with a face splitting grin. 

When Pietro saw the look on Norah’s face he raised a brow at her, “What do you want moj mali bik?” he questioned as he looked at her suspiciously. 

At that Norah looked at him innocently, “What makes you think I want something?” she questioned, trying to pull off the innocent next door neighbor sort of look but was failing miserably at it. 

Pietro leaned forward a bit so that he was leaning over Norah and looked into her yes intensely, “You are smiling like you are cat that just got the canary,” he pointed out to her as he lightly tapped her on the nose with his finger and then sat up straight in his chair once again. “Now, what is it that you want silly girl?” he questioned and looked at her expectantly. 

“Tell me what it means.” Norah said without hesitation and looked at him pleadingly, clasping her hands together in a begging fashion which made her look nothing like the twenty-two year old she was.

Pietro feigned confusion at her question, “Tell you what?” he questioned as the edge of his lip barely lifted in a small smirk at the teasing he and Norah were doing to one and another at the moment. 

Norah sat up a bit and poked him hard in the side making him give a surprised grunt, “You know what I’m talking about so don’t even try to act oblivious. Tell me what moj ma….wahtever means.” She demanded of him as she crossed her arms under her chest and raised a simple brow at him and waited for him to answer her demand.

“Ahh, but I do not know what you talking about.” He teased her which gained him a look of frustration from Norah. 

Smiling to himself, Pietro scooted closer to Norah and gently grasped her hand in one of his and then pressed their palms together so that their hands aligned, his fingers extending past Norah’s more feminine and shorter ones.

Norah looked at Pietro with feigned anger, but really inside she was amused by his teasing and playfulness. “Yeah, I’m sure you don’t have a damn clue what I’m talking about.” She told him and shook her head and shifted her hand that was on top of his and laced her fingers through his and enjoyed the feeling of heat coming off of his skin. “Please?” 

Giving a laugh at her insistence Pietro shook his head, “No. I admire your stubbornness.” He told her.

“Please, please, please?” Norah asked him once again and even stuck her lip out in a pout wanting to know what it is that Pietro has been calling her since they’ve met. 

For a moment Pietro forgot what Norah was asking him, forgot that she was begging him to tell her what his nickname for her meant and instead was thinking about the fact that Norah’s bottom lip was sticking out and teasing his so enticingly and was basically inviting him to kiss her. That lip reminded him of the shipyard in South Africa where he dragged her off to one of the abandoned rooms and pressed her up against the wall and experienced what that exact set of lips tasted like and how truly plump her lips were and it reminded him of what it felt like to have Norah’s body pressed up against his own. God he wanted to kiss her right now. 

“Hey, Pietro!” Norah said as she snapped her fingers in front of his face which brought the blonde/silver haired Sokovian out of his daydream. “You gonna answer or what?” she asked with a quirky look on her face as she gazed at him. 

Pietro looked at her and shook his head, “No, moj mali bik I will not tell you what that means.” He teased her and then pulled their intertwined hands up towards his face and then gently pressed a kiss to the inside of her wrists where a rather large tattoo covered her skin. “I am sure if you think hard enough you can find way to convince me to tell.” He told her mischievously and imagined the things that Norah may think of to convince him. 

“Oh really?” Norah questioned alluringly and waggled her eyebrows at him a bit suggestively which he laughed a bit at. “Any hints on how I should go about doing that?” she asked with a playful smile. 

Pietro looked closely into her eyes, “I am sure that you’ll think of something creative.” He told her and then pinched her side playfully making her jump in place a bit. 

“Hey!” Norah exclaimed at him but couldn’t help the smile that stayed on her face.

Norah knew that when Tony and the others realized what she and Pietro were doing – this flirting thing – that they would not be all that happy with her and would probably try and deter her from continuing it but to be honest she really didn’t care anymore. Norah was twenty-two years old and will be twenty-three in six months and technically she didn’t need any of their approval, not even Tony’s. Besides, it’s not as if she and Pietro were having sex, they were just bantering and playfully flirting with one and another. No big deal. 

A throat clearing behind them drew both Norah and Pietro out of whatever daze/flirting thing the two of them were doing at the moment, quickly as they could they withdrew their hands from one and another but not without gaining the notice of Steve who frowned more making him truly look like the ninety some year old that he was technically supposed to be. 

“How you feeling Norah?” Steve asked her as he gave a sideways glance to Pietro, hoping he gets the hint and leaves so that he could talk to Norah in relative privacy. 

Wanda seeing the look that Steve was throwing at his brother and the obvious frown he had on his face at the close proximity that Pietro and Norah had with one and another she decided to take pity on the man, “Come brother, let’s leave them to talk.” She said and grabbed him by the sleeve of his shirt and dragged him down and away from the two Avengers. 

Giving a roll of her eyes at how Steve was acting and the obvious annoyance he had for Pietro, Norah looked at Steve. “I’m fine Steve.” She said as she looked at the super soldier who acted like such a mother at times. “Feel like I have a bit of a hangover and my body hurts a bit, but otherwise I’m perfectly fine. Scouts honor!” she said with a wide grin on her face as she went through the moves of making the gesture for scouts honor. 

Rather than replying to her little show Steve crossed his arms and looked down at her with a look that seemed to be a mixture of worry, annoyance, confusion and a look of astonishment. Geeze, all he needed was an apron and a spatula and he would be set for the angry mother look. Those were all the same looks that Steve had when he heard Norah swear for the first time, which was completely hilarious to her seeing as he was a man out of time where women rarely swore or said anything derogatory or crude and definitely weren’t close to being like Norah who wasn’t afraid of saying what she thought, of being stubborn, brave, fierce and well, of being Norah. 

Steve looked at her doubtfully but let it go, “So,” he said to her with an expectant look. “Want to explain to me what exactly happened out there? Pietro and Wanda told me you tried something new with your power.” He said and sent her questioning look at that fact. 

Maneuvering herself into an upright position Norah looked at Steve, “Well for one I would not recommend experimenting with powers.” Norah said with a wry grin on her face but when she looked at Steve she saw that he did not share in her amusement, so instead she kept on talking about what had happened. “Short version is that we saw you on TV, needed to get there fast so that Murder machine didn’t kill you, decided to try and get us there from looking at what was happening on TV. I was able to Blink us there but not without feeling utterly exhausted.” She summarized to him. “Good?” 

“Norah.” Steve said as he looked at her sternly. “What exactly were you thinking doing that? Do you know how dangerous that could have been for you? We don’t know what could have happened Norah, you could have gotten killed or something just as bad.” He told her in an angry whisper, not wanting Pietro or Wanda to hear their conversation at the moment. 

At that Norah pursed her lips and glared at Steve for saying that, “Well sorry Steven, I was trying to help you and save your ass from being killed by Ultron.” She told him sarcastically and shook her head at how he was overreacting at the moment. “Sorry not sorry.” She told him childishly and crossed her arms under her chest.   
Steve would admit that accusing her like that and telling her that she could have been killing doing what she did was probably the wrong way to go about things but he was worried, they don’t know what would happen if Norah tried to experiment with her powers so to say. Norah deciding to try something new with her powers, something that she didn’t know much about or what would happen really was when her inner Tony decided to come out to play. It was something that really did not need to happen. 

“Look, Norah.” Steve said with a heavy sigh. “We don’t know what could happen if you do try and do new stuff with your powers, try new things like you did.” He explained to her.

“I was fine. I didn’t die.” Norah said defending herself to Steve.

When she said that Steve sent Norah a pointed look, “You passed out Norah.” He told her. “That’s not fine.” He told her.

“But it’s not dead either.” Norah said obstinately to him and pulled her hair over one shoulder, playing with her hair was one of her nervous habits that she had and couldn’t seem to break no matter how hard she’s tried. “I get that you guys don’t want me to try something like that while out in the field, it was probably stupid of me to do that but I had no other choice Steve. We needed to get on that train and there were no other options. I did what I had to. So you’re going to have to just deal with it.” She told him flippantly with a shrug of her shoulders, not caring what he thought on the matter. 

Steve shook his head at the curly blonde haired twenty-something year old, “You really do need to stop spending so much time with Tony.” He said to her and took a deep calming breath. “Try to relax until we get back to the tower, please.” He said to her and gave her an almost begging look.

“How much longer?” Norah questioned curiously.

“Forty minutes at the most.” Steve answered. 

Letting out a deep breath Norah let herself fall back to lying flat on the bench she was on and closed her eyes for a moment as she threw her arm over her face, she was already dreading what was to come and not just the having to fight Ultron but having to deal with her self-appointed father. Tony. She loved Tony and hated, hated that she was going to be going against him on what he was doing and that he would hope for her support but she couldn’t give it to him, not with what he was doing. He wanted to do who knows what with that body Cho created for Utlron while under mind control and there are some things that no matter how curious a person is about them should be left alone and not be messed with. Tony thinks that he can use the body and create what Ultron should have been, he thinks that if he makes it right that he can enable the body to protect the world from the unknown, from the things that aren’t from this world but he doesn’t realize that it’s utterly impossible to do so. If they want to hurt the people of Earth they will find a way if they are determined enough, there’s always a way around. 

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~ Stark Tower ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~~_~_

“When this is all said and done Pepper is going to kill you Tony.” Bruce said as he was working on some computers trying to figure out the best way to transfer Jarvis into the body that Cho had made for Ultron.  
Bruce knew this was a bad idea, a very, very, very bad idea that he shouldn’t have let himself get suckered into doing but when Tony had his mind set to doing something he was going to do it, damn the consequences. He should have said no to Tony and been done with it but Bruce knew Tony too well, if he had stuck with no and walked away from Tony’s incredibly insane idea the eccentric genius would have done it without him and probably would have ended up creating something ten times worse than Ultron and they were already having a hell of a time with Ultron as it was. 

“Yep.” Tony responded as he was concentrating on the computer he was working on at the moment. “She’s going to want to skin me alive. She’ll enjoy it too.”

Bruce looked over at Tony who didn’t seem all too worried about the ire he would be facing from his girlfriend, “You do know she is going to be pissed about you letting Norah help too, right?” he questioned.

At that Tony grimaced, Pepper was very protective of Norah and thought of her as a younger sister/daughter and absolutely hated it when Tony and the other Avengers dragged her into one of their missions. Pepper said that Norah deserved to have a normal life, or as normal of a life as she could have considering Norah ran away at fifteen and was a Mutant and all, but she wanted the girl to do whatever she wanted and be as normal as she could be and that included not being dragged into missions to take down Hydra. Tony knew he was going to be in the doghouse for a while once Pepper got word of what happened and what he did but he was doing this for the greater good, he wanted the world to be a better place and okay, Ultron didn’t exactly get that and some part of his programming seemed to have gone on the fritz but this, putting Jarvis into the body, this is going to be what Ultron should have been. Pepper will be pissed but she will forgive him eventually……..maybe after a weekend getaway to Rome or Venice.

“Yeah, yeah, I know Bruce.” Tony said to him flippantly, trying to not think about what Pepper was going to say or rather yell at him once she saw him again. “Now stop talking about my love life and get to work. We don’t have time to gossip like a gaggle of giggling grandma’s.” he said and turned his attention back to the computers he was working on and was hoping against hope that Jarvis would be able to mesh into the body that was laying in the cradle at the moment. 

For about an hour or so after that both Tony and Bruce were working diligently with the body that was in the cradle and with the computer systems that were monitoring the body and the transfer of Jarvis’ matrix into the body, both were concentrating on their part of this….incredibly stupid experiment and hoping against hope that what they are doing works. Bruce was more so hoping that they didn’t make things worse by putting Jarvis in this body, this was intended for Ultron so who’s to say that this thing won’t become like Ultron or worse.   
“This framework is not compatible.” Tony said as he was typing away on a computer that was above where the cradle was at the moment. 

Bruce was walking around the body and checking the tablet that was in his hands, “Genetic coding ties at ninety-seven percent, you have got to upload that schematic in the next three minutes.” He told Tony without looking up at him. 

Just as Tony was about to respond to Bruce’s comment about the schematics Steve, Pietro, Wanda and Norah walked into the lab where Bruce and Tony were working on the body that was hooked up to the computers and were hoping to create a better Ultron, a non-murderous kind. When Steve saw what the two scientists were doing he gave them both a look of completely disappointment, he had hoped that out of the two of them that Bruce would at least use his common sense and not give into Tony’s demands and persuasion to try to make Ultron but apparently that wasn’t so. 

“I’m only going to say this once.” Steve said sternly to the two scientists as he looked between the two of them, hoping the serious tone of voice would convince them to back off but knowing Tony it would only urge him on.   
Tony rolled his eyes at Steve and rather than stopping what he was doing like he knew Steve wanted to do he just kept on typing, “How about nunce.” He quipped back. 

Gritting his teeth and clenching his fists in annoyance Steve narrowed his eyes at the man-child, “Shut it down.” He demanded, he really did not have any patience for this at the moment. 

Norah shifted on her feet a bit before she took a small step forwards intending on approaching the man she called father but was stopped by a hand grasping her around her hip, glancing back she saw that it was Pietro who was looking from her to Tony in concern, as if he thought that Tony in his slight…..eccentric state, would try and attack her if she tried to stop him. Sending him a reprimanding look Norah turned her attention back to Tony and gave a disappointed sigh at what he has decided to do; she knew that Tony was eccentric and a bit crazy at times, he could be a downright asshole a good portion of the time and he was a bit self-centered and was a man who constantly had projects going on, some of which were probably incredibly dangerous but Norah always thought that when it mattered that Tony would see reason, would be able to push aside his recklessness and stupidity and not do something irrational. This was definitely something that Tony shouldn’t have even considered messing with and getting his hands into, but Tony being Tony just couldn’t help himself and he had to prove to the others that he could make things right and make something that Ultron should have been instead of the psychopath he seemed to be. 

“Tony.” Norah whispered to herself as she clutched at the necklace that dangled from her neck, as if it was a lifeline that was keeping her grounded at the moment. “Tony!” Norah finally yelled gaining his attention and stepped forwards and ignored Pietro and Wanda’s demands for her to not move closer in case the body suddenly came alive. “What are you doing?” she questioned him with a pain filled expression on her face for what he was trying to do. 

Tony managed to look up from his computer and looked at Norah, the girl who he called daughter, and winced when he saw the look she was giving him. It was a look filled with worry, disbelief, anger, betrayal and hope, seeing her with all of those emotions fliting across her face made Tony feel like a downright horrible father for being the one to make her feel those but he couldn’t stop now, he was so close to achieving what he meant to in the first place when he created the Ultron program. 

“I’m doing this for you.” Tony said to her with conviction which gained him looks of confusion from Norah, Steve, Pietro and Wanda.

Hearing that Norah stepped back a bit and looked at Tony in bewilderment at what he meant that he was doing this for her, in what reality does this equal Tony doing this for her. “What?” she asked incredulously. “How in the hell is this for me Tony? How?” she demanded of him as she waved her hand over the cradle where the body laid and where all of the computers were connected to at the moment. 

“Norah,” Tony said softly as he stopped looking at the computer for a moment. “I love you so god damn much, you and Pepper are the only people that I’ve ever loved this much since my mother died. You may not be my blood but I don’t give a rat’s ass about that, you are my daughter.” He told her as he looked into her eyes seriously. “I…I need to keep you safe Norah, I want to be able to live without having to fear being attacked by aliens, monsters or whatever-“

“But not Ultron?” Norah questioned darkly as she crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at her father figure and wondered if he truly has lost his mind, this was not something that mostly sane person would do. 

Tony closed his eyes and swallowed thickly when Norah had said that to him but continued on, “I want to protect you and Pepper, Norah. I want to protect you guys but I can’t do that alone, I can’t even do that with the Avengers. But this,” he said as he gestured towards the cradle. “This will make the world a better place, will keep the world safe. This will be what Ultron was supposed to be. It will make it so that you can’t be-“

Before Tony had the chance to finish his sentence Norah interrupted him. “No!” She yelled at him harshly making him and Bruce flinch a bit at how angry it sounded. “No Tony,” she said in a more subdued tone of voice. “That’s not how things work Tony. I get that you want to keep me safe from the horrible things in the world, from any aliens that might want to come back and try and kill us like they did in New York a few years back but you can’t. Tony, you can’t treat me like a fragile porcelain doll who you lock up in a cabinet for safe keeping. You can’t treat me like that, I won’t let you.” She told him with a pointed look as she ran her hands through her messy curly hair, a nervous habit of hers. “If aliens want to fucking attack the world again then they will Tony, this….thing won’t be able to stop them if they really want to attack and kill us. There’s always a way around Tony.” She told him with a look of understanding, she knew why he was doing this and why he wanted to create Ultron but he’s making a mistake no matter if his heart was in the right place or not. “You’ve gone completely bat shit crazy. I love you, but please Tony, please stop this before it’s too late. Before you create something that you can’t control.”

God, if Pepper had been here when all this shit had been going on than Tony would have never tried to make Ultron happen, she would have threatened him in some way or would have made Tony see reason and make him realize why creating Ultron was a horrible, horrible idea. If Tony hadn’t created Ultron then the human race wouldn’t be in danger of being decimated by a murder crazy robot that was originally supposed to be the protector of the human race, not the one who ended them. 

Steve looked at Norah who was giving Tony a desperate look, and then turned his attention to Bruce and Tony. “You don’t know what you’re doing.” He told them gravely and hoped that the two geniuses in front of him would see reason and see that they need to stop what they are ding before it’s too late.

“And you do?” Bruce questioned and gestured towards Wanda who was standing beside Norah. “She’s not in your head?”

Wanda grimaced when Bruce had said that but she deserved it, she messed with his head and made him go on a rampage in South Africa. “I know you’re angry bu-“

When she said that Bruce gave a hollow sounding laugh and looked into her eyes intently, the anger that he felt towards her clearly there. “Oh we’re way past angry. I could choke the life out of you and never change a shade.” He said to her threateningly as he glared at both Wanda and Pietro for what they had done to him and his teammates. 

“Bruce!” Norah admonished as she narrowed her eyes at the man who was usually quite calm and collected. “Please Bruce, please don’t do this. We don’t know what will happen if you guys go through with making this….thing.” she said forsakenly and could only imagine what the outcome will be if they continue as they are, she had to try to sway their minds though, she had to try and get them to stop before it was too late. “We don’t know if this thing will be what you two intended for Ultron to be, we don’t know if he will end up worse than what Ultron is. You may be trying to create something that will protect the human race but what if it doesn’t go that way?” she questioned and then looked at Tony with a furrowed brow. “Tony, please. Please don’t do this.”

For a moment, a very small moment Tony thought about stopping from trying to make Ultron happen and even considered destroying the body that was in the cradle so that he wouldn’t be tempted to make it later on but he shook those thoughts out of his head before they could take hold. He hated seeing Norah in so much emotional pain because of him and seeing her beg for him to stop pulled at his heart like nothing else but he couldn’t stop, Norah may not believe him when he told her that he was doing this for her and Pepper, but he was. He was doing this so that they wouldn’t have to worry about aliens or things from other worlds and/or planets trying to kill them. He had to do this.

“I’m sorry Norah, but no. I’m not stopping.” Tony told her in a gentle tone of voice and concentrated on uploading the necessary information into the body. 

Steve realizing that trying to change Tony’s mind was a losing battle turned to Bruce, imploringly. “Banner, after everything that’s happened. Aft-“ he started to say but was interrupted by Tony. 

“It’s nothing compared to what’s coming.” Tony argued angrily that Steve and Norah couldn’t see why this is something that they needed, that the world needed. 

Wanda shook her head at the arguing men, feeling as if she was surrounded by petulant children instead. “You don’t know what’s in there.” She pointed out to them tersely.

“It’s not a game.”

Pietro gave a tired sigh at all of the arguing that was going on around him and at how the argument keeps on going around in circles and wasn’t seeming to make any difference in what was going on and in stopping Tony and Bruce from making the body become what Ultron was supposed to be, so rather than waiting and hoping that one of the scientists saw reason and stopped what they were doing before it was too late he decided to take matters in his own hands. So before anyone could realize what he was doing he whirled around the room messing up the papers that Tony had on his computer station, knocked some of the equipment over and then ripped out the main cord that was connected to the cradle and that was enabling Tony and Bruce to bring this thing to life so to say which effectively shut the thing down before it could become a problem. The moments the cord was disconnected from the cradle there were sounds of frantic beeps, warning sounds coming from the computers signaling that it was no longer connected to the cradle and wasn’t able to do whatever it was that Tony was having the computer do to the body that was in the cradle. 

Pietro held the cord in his hand before unceremoniously dropping it the ground, “No, no. Go on, you were saying.” He said and looked at Banner who was standing a few feet from him and then over at Tony both of whom were looking at him as if they couldn’t believe that he just did that.

Looking over at Pietro, Norah had to admit that what he just did was dramatic and effective. It would be hard for Tony and Bruce to bring this thing to life without some of the equipment that Pietro destroyed and with the cord that Pietro had just ripped from the machine none too gently, hopefully making it unable to be fitted back into the cradle. 

For a few moments all anyone did was stare at one and another and the cradle that Pietro effectively shut down before it could be created into something worse than Ultron, before anyone had a chance to start arguing or yelling again there was the sudden sound of a gunshot and not but a few seconds later did Pietro fall through the glass floor that he was standing on and into the floor that was directly below him. 

“Pietro!” Wanda yelled in worry for her brother. 

Quickly as he could Tony began to do all that he could to fix the computers and to get everything back online so that they could finish what they started a few hours ago – creating a protector of the world. There was no telling how much time they lost while arguing and what could have possibly happened to the body when Pietro had destroyed some of their equipment and unplugged the cradle so carelessly, they needed to work as fast as they could and try to get the cradle back online. 

“I’m rerouting the upload.” Tony said as he turned his back away from Norah, Steve and Wanda and began to type things into his computer that was next to him and working as fast as he possibly could to get everything back in working order. 

Before Tony had even typed a few different codes into his computer Steve reacted and threw his shield into the computer’s that were besides Tony trying to stop the mad man from doing something incredibly stupid…again. Tony flared at Steve when he did that and used his detachable Iron Man arm and threw a blast at Steve which threw the super soldier into a wall that was behind him, breaking the glass and some furniture that had been in his pathway but he got up quickly and went after Tony once again.

Wanda seeing what was going on and seeing that Stark was fighting against his teammate all because he wanted to create something that could become incredibly dangerous decided to help Steve and try to incapacitate Tony so that he couldn’t fight against Steve. Raising her arms up a bit in the direction of Tony, Wanda concentrated and soon red wisps appeared in front of her and she was about to direct them towards the dark haired billionaire but before she had much of a chance to do so arms wrapped tightly around her, trapping her arms to her sides so that she couldn’t direct the energy towards Stark. 

“Go ahead,” Bruce seethed into her ear. “Piss me off.” He said in a challenging tone of voice, as if he was waiting for her to do something that would make him become the Hulk.

Norah looked around her at the chaos that was suddenly unfolding and shook her head; this was not what friends and teammates were supposed to do, they weren’t supposed to fight with one and another and try and hurt each other. They were supposed to support one and another, to help one and another, to hear each other out and they definitely were not supposed to try and create a murder crazy robot or mess with things that they don’t understand. This was an absolute mess. 

Shaking her head, Norah looked over at where Wanda and Bruce were and carefully made her way over there just in case Bruce thought she might attack him (she would if he pushed her) and grasped Wanda’s hands that were stuck down by her hips and quickly Blinked them out of Bruce’s reach and on the other side of the room. Looking over at Bruce, Norah could see that he was looking at her in shock and confusion, obviously seeing what she just did as betrayal of sorts.

“Thank you.” Wanda said to her quietly as the two girls looked at the fighting that was going on between Tony and Steve. 

Norah couldn’t take it anymore, Tony was her father but Steve was her friend and she hated that they were fighting when they were supposed to be on the same team. “Stop it!” she screamed at the two men who were acting nothing like adults at the moment. “Goddamn it, just stop it. You’re both acting like children who got their toy taken away.” She said to them with an annoyed look on her face. “Stop fighting each other. Now is not the damn time for it. Tony, plea-“ she began to say but was suddenly stopped by the appearance of Thor. 

For a moment all Thor did was look around the room at each and every person that was there, his eyes looking curiously at Wanda and more than likely wondering why a girl who had been on Ultron’s side was now at Stark Tower. But soon, Thor’s attention was drawn to the cradle and without a moment’s hesitation he jumped on top of it and raised his arm that was holding onto Mjolnir into the air and channeled lightening into it which was giving off quite the light show. None of them had a chance to ask Thor what he was doing because the moment they were able to actually comprehend what was going on Thor suddenly aimed his hammer downwards at the cradle where the prone body was laying and directed the electricity of the lightening towards it, there were sounds of the computers whirring at being able to recognize power surging through them and the cradle and into the body that laid within it. 

“What the-“ Steve began to say when Thor finally stopped the light show he was using to push power into the body.

But before he was able to utter more than a couple words Thor was thrown from the top of the cradle and a red body with gold accents rose up and out of the cradle and looked around him with curiosity and a bit of fear. Wanda, Steve, Norah, Thor, Bruce and Tony just looked on in curiosity and caution in case this man or whatever you wanted to call him was in fact what they had feared he would be – worse than Ultron. 

For a moment the red man just looked over at everyone that was in the room at the moment, seeming to study them and trying to understand who they were and what they were doing at the moment but before any of them could say a word to him, to try and see if he was a danger to them and the other people in the world he suddenly flew forward right at Thor in an attack but before the man could do any damage Thor threw him over his head and through the glass wall that separated Tony’s lab from the rather large room that they had held the party in not but a handful of days ago. But rather than going back to attack Thor and the others like everyone thought he was going to do, instead he slowed himself down and floated in midair as he looked out at the landscape of New York City and just took everything in and tried to comprehend everything that was going on at the present moment. What and who he was and what he was supposed to be. 

“What the fuck.” Norah said from her position in the lab and looked across the destruction of the lab and walls to see the red guy still floating and looking at the cityscape. “What the hell just happened?” she asked rhetorically as she watched Steve and Thor slowly approach the red figure.

“I….I don’t know.” Wanda said as she gave a hard look towards the man with red skin, she did not trust that thing especially after what she saw in his mind when they were in Seoul.

Giving a sigh Norah grabbed onto Wanda’s arm and Blinked them over to where everyone else was gathering at the moment, all of whom were watching with baited breath to see what the man would say or do and waiting to see if they had to kill him because he was like Ultron. Slowly the red man (he really needed a name or something) turned from the window and rather than him being in his naked glory blue began to cover him as if it was a second skin and hid certain body parts that did not need to be seen by everyone and their mother. 

“What is happening?” the voice of Pietro said suddenly from behind Norah and Wanda but Norah was the only one who jumped in surprise.

Rather than answering that both Norah and Wanda just gave a shrug and kept their attention on what was happening in front of them, neither really knew what was going on other than the fact that this manmade body had suddenly come alive because of Thor and now no one really knew how to proceed. 

Slowly, the red man walked forward a bit until he stood by Thor and then looekd at everyone who was gathered and gave them an apologetic look. “Sorry, that was…odd.” He stated and then looked at Thor and gave a nod of his head. “Thank you.” He said to him in a voice that sounded exactly like Jarvis. 

Steve looked at the man/thing/being that sounded like Jarvis and then looked over at Thor accusingly. “You helped create this?” he questioned an unreadable expression on his face. 

Thor nodded, “I’ve had a vision, a whirlpool that-“

The moment that Norah heard Thor start talking about a vision he had she stopped listening to what he was saying and gave him a skeptical look; okay sure there are aliens she can believe in that, she can believe in Norse Gods, she can believe in Mutants other than the fact that she is one and hell, she’d believe in werewolves and vampires before she believed in people having visions. She’s never heard of a person having visions before and as far as she knew there weren’t any Mutant’s around that had the power of having visions be it of the future or of the past. And now Thor was talking about having visions about this thing that Utlron had created for himself and that Tony decided to try and make into what Ultron was originally supposed to be. 

“What gem?” Bruce said to Thor as he took a step closer to Thor and the red man and looked closely at him, studying him and wondering if they made a mistake. 

Thor gestured towards the man’s forehead where there was a yellow/gold colored stone placed in the middle of it. “It’s the mind stone.” He said as he turned and looked at everyone so that they could see how important what he was telling them was. “It’s one of the six infinity stones. The greatest power in the universe, it’s unparalleled in its destructive capabilities.” He revealed. 

That didn’t sound good, that really did not sound good and definitely didn’t sound like something that they should keep on the red man who was intended to be the new body for Ultron.   
Steve looked at Thor incredulously, “Then why’d you bring-“

“Stark is right.” Thor said as he interrupted the lecture that Steve was sure to give him because of what he just did and what he revealed about the stone that was atop the red man’s forehead. 

Looking at Thor with wide, surprised eyes Norah took a step back right into Pietro who carefully laid one of his hands on her hip, and felt as if everyone had completely lost their minds at the present moment. No one should ever say those words out loud to Tony even if they are true – he’s too arrogant, self-centered and eccentric to not let it go to his head and do something stupid. Not even Bruce, who was one of Tony’s few close friends, would ever tell the man that. 

“No,” Norah said as she looked from Thor to Tony to the man with no name. “No. no, no, no, no. You don’t tell Tony that, you never, under any circumstances ever tell Tony that he’s right.” She told them fiercely. “Tony isn’t right, not with this, especially not with this shit that is going on.” She said and gestured wildly around the room and to the man with the voice of Jarvis. 

Bruce shook his head and gave a despondent sigh, “Oh it’s definitely the end of times.” He uttered to the room.   
Thor looked at both Norah and Bruce in disappointment, thinking that since they were both the closest with Tony would be happy to hear that he thought Stark was right, and that creating this was a good thing. 

“We need him to help us defeat Ultron.” Thor explained to them; they may be the Avengers and they may have a Mutant and apparently two enhanced on their side now but that wouldn’t do much damage in the long run, it would only end up getting the majority of them killed. 

Steve looked doubtful at what Thor was telling them and ignored it for the moment, “Why does your vision sound like Jarvis?” he questioned as he looked sideways at Tony and waited expectantly. 

Tony gave a small arrogant grin, “We configured Jarvis’ matrix to create something new.” He explained as he looked at what he and Bruce were able to do with the body Cho had made, more than thankful that it had worked and that it hadn’t become another Ultron situation.

“I think I’ve had my fill of new.” Steve said shortly, an unhappy look spreading across his face. 

The creation turned towards Steve, “You think I’m a child of Ultron.” He said to him calmly as he looked into Steve’s eyes. 

Steve looked at him suspiciously, not trusting him to not be a child of Ultron’s. “You’re not?” he questioned as he crossed his arms across his chest waiting to hear a good enough explanation that would make him believe any differently. 

He shook his head, “I’m not Ultron. I’m not Jarvis either. I am,” he seemed confused for a moment before giving a decisive nod of the head. “I am.” He said with confidence. 

Wanda approached carefully, sidestepping her brother who tried to pull her away from going near this unknown being, “I looked into your head and saw annihilation.” She said to him with narrowed eyes wondering how he could have changed so much in a short period of time.

He looked at her sincerely, “Look again.” He told her with honest eyes, trying to show her that he wasn’t trying to hide anything and that he willing to let her dig inside his mind to find whatever it is that might convince her to believe him. 

Clint scoffed at that, “Yeah, that means jack to me.” He told them as he glared over at Wanda and walked over to look at Ultron, unsure what he thought of the guy/thing. 

“Their powers,” Thor said as he pointed at Wanda and Pietro. “The horrors in our heads, Ultron himself, it all came from this mind stone. Nothing compared to what it can unleash. But with it on our side-“ 

Steve interrupted Thor, “Is it?” he asked in a serious tone of voice and looked over at the red being. “Are you? On our side?”

He thought for a moment, “I don’t think it’s that simple.” He replied, not certain how to explain it to them.

Clint shook his head at him, “Well it better get read simple real soon.” He said as he walked towards where Norah was who had her back to Pietro and narrowed his eyes, he could see that the kid had a hand resting on Norah’s hip under her shirt.

“I am on the side of life, Ultron isn’t.” He finally responded after a minute or so of silence from everyone in the room. 

Tony quirked a brow up at him, “What’s he waiting for?”

It’s true enough; if Ultron wanted to get to them and to kill them he could do it then and there. He knew where their ‘home base’ was so to say and he knew each and every single one of them, he knew things about them that not even they knew about one and another so why was Ultron waiting, why wasn’t he and his metal army of men flying there to New York to take them out.

“You.” He said simply. 

Clint glared at Pietro overtop of Norah’s head and then turned back to the discussion that was happening, “Sokovia. He’s got Nat there too.” He told them and turned back to Pietro, catching his gaze he gestured towards the hand that Pietro had on Norah and then gave him an icy glare. “Remove. Now.” He whispered to him so that only himself, Pietro and Norah could hear what he said.

At that Norah rolled her eyes but slowly moved Pietro’s hand from her hip no matter how much she enjoyed feeling his fingers rub the bare skin there. As much as Norah loved being a little devil at times and joking around and teasing her friends and family she knew now was not the time to do it, she would rather not have Clint jump at Pietro and attempt to attack him. They already have enough on their plate as it is. 

“If we’re wrong about you,” Bruce said in a dark tone as he looked at the body they put Jarvis’ matrix into. “If you’re the monster that Ultron made you to be.” 

Before Bruce was able to threaten him too much more, he was interrupted by the said man that he was threatening. “I don’t want to kill Ultron, he’s unique and he’s in pain.” He said as he walked a bit away from the group that had formed around him, questioning him on if he was truly a child of Ultron’s and if he was trustworthy. “That pain will roll over the earth so he must be destroyed. Every form he’s built, every trace of his presence on the net. We have to act now and not one of us can do it without the other.” He said as he turned and looked at each and every person that was in the room with him at the moment and looked into their eyes so that they could see how serious he was about this, about getting rid of Ultron once and for all before he kills off the human race. “Maybe I am a monster.” He said as he looked down at his hands for a moment. “ I don’t think I would know if I were one. I’m not what you are, I’m not what you intended.” He said turning from them for a moment. “So there may be no way to make you trust me, but we need to go.” He said as he lifted Thor’s hammer, a hammer which none of the Avengers aside from Thor has been able to pick up, and handed it to the Norse God who looked at him dumbly. 

Seeing this man pick up Thor’s hammer as if it weighed nothing more than a feather and seeing Thor looking at the man absolutely perplexed as to how that happened made everyone just stare, it wasn’t often that people were able to best Thor even if it was unintended. 

“Did that just happen?” Norah questioned as she leaned over towards Clint to whisper. 

Clint nodded at her, “Yep,” he said to her and smirked when he saw the confused look that was on Thor’s face at the moment. 

“Hmm. Interesting.” Norah said with a shrug of her shoulders and a noncommittal sound.

Thor grasped tightly onto his hammer, as if he thought that the man was about to take it from him or something and then shook his head and looked at everyone with a smile on his face. “All right.” He said and acted as if that didn’t just transpire and began to leave the room. “Well done.” He said patting Tony’s shoulder as he passed by.   
Steve stepped forward, taking on the role of leader once again and looked at Tony, Bruce, Clint, Wanda, Pietro and Norah. “You have fifteen minutes, get what you need and then get to the jet.” He said in a no nonsense tone of voice and then looked back over to Norah. “Show them the locker room so they can change and get them some ear comms.” 

Norah gave a half-hearted salute to Steve before she turned towards Pietro and Wanda with an almost forced grin on her face at the fact that they were about to head to Sokovia – the Lion’s Den so to say – and were going to take on Ultron but Norah did what she could to try and not think on that too much at the moment, once they get in the air and head towards Sokovia she could have a little freak out session about the fact that she could die in Sokovia while fighting against Ultron and his metal minions. 

“Let’s blow this popsicle stand.” Norah said with a grin but all Pietro and Wanda did was stare at her in confusion, not understanding the phrase that she used. “It means let’s get out of here.” She supplied to them with a slight chuckle and held her hands out to the two impatiently, waiting for them to take her hands so that she could Blink them down a few floors to where the locker room and Gym were located at. 

“That is…odd phrase.” Pietro said to her and then looked down at her hand that she was offering him and then looked back at her face and scrunched his face up in concern over her wellbeing. “Should you be using your power already, you did pass out.” He told her. 

Norah raised at Pietro, amusement showing in her eyes. “What, are you worried about little ol’ me?” she teased with a hint of a smile. 

“Yes, moj mali bik. I am.” Pietro told her honestly as his clear blue eyes bore into Norah’s who gave an almost involuntary shiver at how intensely he was looking at her. 

Calming her emotions – she was acting like a teenage girl at the moment – Norah winked playfully at Pietro. “You sure know how to make a girl feel special don’t you?” she flirted and directed a confident smile at him. “Now, don’t worry about me Sweets, promise I’ll be fine.” She told him and gently patted the side of his face with her hand. “Now grab my hand.” She said and offered him her hand and shook it impatiently. 

Pietro stared at her pale hand for a few moments, debating whether he should do as Norah asked him to or not but before he had a chance to make a decision one way or another Norah reached forward and grasped his larger and warm feeling hand and Blinked them to the locker room which was much smaller than the room they all had been arguing in and deciding in the manmade body was to be trusted or not. On one wall there were about a dozen or so lockers that went from floor to ceiling, there were benches a few feet in front of where the lockers were located at, pushed against another wall that was furthest from the lockers were a few closets that were filled with clothing and shoes for both men and women, they had been prototype clothing that Tony had made for the Avengers for either working out or for going on missions. 

“Well,” Norah said as she looked around the room. “This is your stop Pietro.” She said as she pulled her hand from Pietro’s grasp and then gestured towards the room they were in. “You’re welcome to anything that you find; that closet over there has clothes and shoes that you can pick from if you want to. I’d definitely get a pair of new shoes, no offense but yours are looking the worse for the wear at the moment.” She told him bluntly as she gestured towards his shoes which were old looking and looked to be barely hanging on by a string. 

“They are not that bad.” Pietro grumbled as he narrowed his eyes at Norah.

At that Wanda rolled her eyes, “Yes they are Pietro, they look like they’ve been cut up and sewn back together again. Get new shoes.” She told him in a motherly tone.

Shaking his head at the two girls he looked to Norah curiously, “Where are you two going?” he questioned.  
At that Norah smiled brightly t him, “I’m kidnapping your sister to raid my closet.” She told him simply, as if should have been obvious what they were doing. “I’ve been wearing these,” she pulled at her shorts which seemed to be fused to her skin. “For the last two days at the least and well, I really want to get out of them as fast as I can.”

“I could help with that if you like.” Pietro said with a Cheshire grin on his face as he looked at Norah from top to bottom, taking every inch of her in and committing it all to memory once again.

Wanda looked over sharply at her brother with a look of disgust and was about to tell him to not talk like that when she was still in the room but when she looked over at him she saw that all his attention was on Norah and that he more than likely wouldn’t hear any complaints that she would voice so instead she opted for rolling her eyes and giving a heavy sigh. Why did she get put into these sort of awkward situations, she didn’t want to know about her brother’s sex life or his sex life to be. 

“Maybe later,” Norah said with a wink. “But for now me and Wanda need to change clothes.” She told him and leant up and kissed him on the cheek quickly before she wiggled her fingers at him in a wave of goodbye and then Blinked herself and Wanda out of the locker room and to the floor where her room was located at without a word of good bye to Pietro.

Arriving in the hallway that led to her bedroom, both Norah and Wanda looked at one and another for a brief moment before they burst into girlish giggles that made them sound as if they were twelve year olds rather than the twenty-something year old that that they actually were. 

“Did you see his face,” Wanda said with a large smile on her face, pretending that she didn’t have any worries and was just a girl hanging out with her friend. “He was enthralled with you, I thought he would have torn your clothes off if it wasn’t for me.” She told her. “You enjoy pushing him.” 

At that Norah giggled once again, it seems to be a habit as of late, “I can’t help it. He makes it fun to push him and to tease and banter with him. It’s as if it is a need to do that to him.” She explained with a shrug as she reached the door to her bedroom and pushed it open. 

Wanda sent a knowing look to Norah, “No, that is how you two flirt. You tease, you joke, you banter, you make each other want. He is my brother and is sickening to see him act like lovesick puppy, but it is funny to watch too. You keep him on his toes.” She said and finally looked around the room that Norah led them into and her eyes widened in shock, it was much bigger than the majority of places that she and Pietro had lived in since their parents had died. “This….this is very big room.” 

“Yeah,” Norah said with a heavy sigh. “Tony’s doing.” 

Norah’s bedroom was very large and looked as if it could be the size of a simple one bedroom apartment; she had a four poster bed with bedding thrown haphazardly on it, there was a desk to one side, a walk in closet that even had a small couch inside of it, a cushioned chest pushed against one wall of her bedroom, there was also an antique styled vanity and the wall that faced towards the city had half of the wall made of glass that had the ability to darken so that no one had the ability to look in. It was much bigger than Norah needed but Tony insisted on her having one of the bigger and better rooms that were in the tower. 

“Personally,” Norah said as she went over to her closet and walked inside and pulled a few dresses off of their hangers for Wanda to look through and choose from. “I would have been perfectly fine with a, you know, regular sized bedroom but Tony was being Tony and wouldn’t let me. Said it would have been a disgrace to his name, honor and that Stark’s didn’t settle for small bedrooms or something like that, he was being a drama queen.” She said which brought a laugh forth from Wanda’s lips at the image that brought up – Tony in a dress and a crown. “I shared a dorm room with three other girls when I was going to Xavier’s Institute, I would have been fine with something half the size of this room.” 

“Xavier’s Institute?” Wanda questioned, cocking her head to the side in curiosity. 

Norah walked out of her closet with a handful of dresses in her arms and nodded her head at Wanda, “Yeah, it’s a private school of Mutants like me.” She told her and threw the clothes on a chair that was near her bed for Wanda to look through and pick from. “It allowed us Mutant’s to be who we are – Mutants – without having the fear of being ridiculed or hated because of who we are and what we could do.” She explained and then a sudden gloomy look appeared on her face. “Not everyone likes Mutants….not even family members.” She said bitterly. 

“That is not fair, they should not judge for being different. Families should accept their loved ones no matter what.” Wanda said fiercely as she picked up a simply black dress that had ties around the waist so that she could adjust it to fit her smaller frame.

“No,” Norah said softly. “No it’s not.” 

Wanda looked over at Norah with a furrowed brow and saw the far off look on her face and wondered for a moment if she had a bad relationship with her family before she came to be considered Stark’s daughter, she wondered if her being a Mutant caused her birth family to no longer treat her as she should have been, if they no longer accepted her simply because she had a power that enabled her to do things that no regular human being was able to do. From the bitterness she heard in Norah’s voice, Wanda was led to believe that what she thought was true. 

Ignoring her thoughts and feelings on the previous subject Norah shook her head and headed back into her closet to dig some clothes out for herself to wear on their mission back to Sokovia. Ultimately Norah chose a pair of brown wash skinny motorcycle styled jeans, a dark green V-neck t-shirt and a black bomber jacket and the same pair of black boots that she’s been wearing for the last however many days. Once she was changed Norah headed over to her antique looking vanity and began to quickly pull her hair into a messy side Dutch braid that fell over her shoulder and then slid on a simple cameo necklace that she’s had since before she ran away from home. It had been her great grandmother’s on her mother’s side of the family. 

Turning sideways on the bench she was sitting on Norah looked at Wanda and saw she was dressed in a simple black dress and not much else other than the boots that were on her feet. “You need a jacket.” She said suddenly to Wanda and walked back into her closet and shuffled things around a bit before she pulled a red leather asymmetrical jacket out and threw it at Wanda who yelled a ‘hey’ at her for throwing it at her face. “I got that from Tony but he’s either an idiot or doesn’t listen to me when he should be since he seemed to have forgotten that I’m not a fan of red really, not to mention it’s the wrong size for me. It should fit you though.” 

Wanda slipped the jacket on hesitantly as she looked at Norah uncertain, “Are you sure?” she asked. 

“Yeah, trust me I’m never going to wear the thing so you might as well have it and put it to good use.” Norah told her with an encouraging look. “Try not to ruin in while fighting though, it is a nice jacket after all.” She said and looked at her bed with a longing look, wishing that she could do nothing more than just collapse onto her bed and sleep for a few hours, anything that would let her catch up a bit of her sleep. “Come on, ‘spose we should get back to Pietro before he gets bored and leaves the locker room to go and both Tony or something.” 

“That would be bad.” Wanda admitted thinking about what her brother would wish to do or say if Tony found him without Norah to buffer their arguing and/or accusations. 

Smiling Norah grasped Wanda by the red jacket she now wore and Blinked them into the locker room that they had last left Pietro in but before Norah was able to yell a greeting to Pietro she took a sharp intake of breath at the sight that greeted her; there standing not but five feet from where she stood was Pietro who was only wearing a pair of pants and running shoes, there was a long sleeved shirt dangling from his fingers obviously intending on puling it on but was interrupted by Norah and Wanda’s sudden appearance. 

It was right then and there that Norah decided that Pietro had one of the most beautiful bodies that she has ever had the privilege of seeing in her twenty-two years of life – that includes seeing Steve and Thor without their shirts on too from working out of injuries on missions – as far as Norah was concerned the super soldier and the Norse god had nothing on Pietro. If she would have known what Pietro looked like underneath his clothes when they were in South Africa Norah would have probably jumped him right then and there rather than just making out with him. 

Sadly before Norah had much more of a chance to ogle Pietro and the mighty fine chest and abs he had he pulled the long sleeved shirt overtop of his head and down his chest until it hid his bare skin from view, when that happened Norah had literally let out a small whimper. “Damn.” Norah said a tad bit too loud. 

Securing his shirt in place Pietro looked across the room at Norah and grinned widely, an arrogant look on his face. “Damn what?” he questioned with a raised brow as he slowly approached where she and his sister stood. 

Norah had wide eyes when Pietro said that, sure they have flirted before but she wasn’t exactly how to respond to Pietro most definitely hearing her affirm that she found him and his body attractive, quickly glancing over at Wanda she made a pleading face at her hoping that she would make a reason to get Norah out of this current situation that she inadvertently put herself in. 

“I will leave.” Wanda said suddenly which made Norah shake her head unnoticeably at her but Wanda just smiled at her. “I have to…apologize to the Hulk…to Bruce.” She said grasping for some sort of reason to leave Norah and Pietro alone in this locker room.

As Wanda walked out of the locker room to head back to where everyone else had last been both Norah and Pietro just stood in spot and stared at one and another; Pietro with amusement and want at how Norah had reacted to seeing him without his shirt on and Norah was looking at him with heated eyes and with slight embarrassment that he had heard her admission. Before Norah could try and say anything to Pietro he suddenly appeared in front of her with his super speed and was but centimeters from her, smirking down at her Pietro took a step forwards but when he did that Norah would take a step back away from him and when he stepped forward once again she would step back…again. So Pietro and Norah continued this dance of sorts until Norah ended up pressing her back up against the lockers that were against the wall which gave Pietro the chance to lean down towards Norah’s face until their noses were nearly touching each other. 

Pietro grinned down at Norah wolfishly, “Damn what?” he questioned again. 

“Nuh uh,” Norah said as she poked Pietro’s chest in annoyance at the arrogant look he had on his face. “Don’t try and play that game with me Pietro Maximoff. You know exactly what I mean when I said that so get that stupid grin off of your face.” She said as she narrowed her eyes at him.

Pietro smiled down at her, “Such a feisty one moj mali bik. It is not nice to yell when I was only asking a question.” He told her as he lifted one of his hands and gently pulled on the braid that Norah had her hair in and frowned at it, he liked it when her hair was free and wild from being contained by a ponytail or a braid as it were. 

Norah smirked back at Pietro, “Life is so much more exciting when you have someone life me in your life; feisty, stubborn, independent, deter-“

Before Norah had much of a chance to say more than a sentence or so Pietro quickly pressed himself into Norah’s soft curvy body and framed her face with both of his hands before he pulled her into a heated kiss and gave an inaudible sigh of relief at being able to kiss her once again. Without the fear of being caught by her teammates. Norah responded to the kiss by grasping onto the front of his shirt and pulling him as close to her as she could and then pressed her plump lips harder against his and dug her nails into the back of his neck with her free hand, smiling into the kiss Pietro moved one hand from the side of Norah’s face and down to her beautiful bottom and squeezed it for a moment before he pulled it as close to his body and rubbed himself against her so that she could feel exactly what she was doing to him even if all they were was feeling each other up a bit and kissing. Pulling her lips away from Pietro’s, Norah slowly kissed her way away from his lips until they had reached his collar bone and pressed feather light kissed along it until she reached his Adam’s apple and then in a torturously slow pace licked her way up his neck until she reached his chin and pulled back a bit when she heard his heavy breathing. 

“Mmm, Pietro.” Norah said with a moan as Pietro leant down towards her neck and gently bit it and sucked at the spot just behind her ear which seemed to be one of her pleasurable spots. 

“Eleanorah,” Pietro whispered into her ear as he gently tugged on her ear with his teeth and then sucked the lobe into his mouth and then licked up along the shell of her ear and let her hear his labored breathing from all that he was feeling from kissing Norah, from feeling her pressed so tightly up against him and from what Norah was doing to him as well with her own lips and hands. 

The two were so caught up with one and another and being sure to kiss as much skin as they possibly could before they had to leave for the jet that neither heard a loud voice outside the locker room yelling at them and definitely didn’t hear the door of said locker room opening and allowing someone inside who definitely got an eye full of the make-out session that was happening between Norah and Pietro at the moment. 

One thing that they did hear was the ear splitting yelp that Tony let loose when he saw Norah and Pietro making out and being very handsy with one and another when he walked into the locker room where Wanda said that she had last seen the two. He decided that the Witch Twin definitely was sadistic if she let him walk right into this.   
“Really!” Tony groaned loudly and very dramatically like a child would. “Really Norah?” he questioned again with narrowed eyes as he watched his daughter and Pietro pull away from one and another and look towards Tony, but he could see them sneaking glances at one and another and that just made Tony want to scream internally. “I knew it! I knew you and him were doing some weird ass freaky sort of flirting thing. I mean, I get you aren’t around guys or other people who are around your same age, but really?”

At that Norah bit her lip a bit uncertain, “Tony, you see the-“ she began but was interrupted.

Tony quickly waved his hands at Norah and Pietro dismissively, “I don’t care and I really, really don’t want to know right now, okay. I really, really do not want to think about this or think about the position I found you two in. It….it’s too traumatic for me right now. You’re my daughter,” he said as he looked at Norah and completely ignored Pietro who was standing to the side of her. “And I really am not going to think about this anymore than I already have. Ugh!” he said in disgust and then quickly turned tail and left out the door and down the hallway he had come from when he had gone to search for Norah and Pietro to tell them to hurry up and get their asses to the jet. 

Before Norah could move too far away from him Pietro swooped in and quickly stole one last kiss before waking forwards towards the door and stretched his hand out towards her, “Come, you get to experience my power now.” He told her with a grin on his face. 

With a hint of a smile on her face Norah placed her hand in Pietro’s who wasted no time in pulled her to him ad into his arms and then took off at an inhuman pace towards where the rest of the Avengers were. 

~_~_~_~_~.~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~.~_~_~_~_~_~_.~_~_~_~_~_~.

Before stepping onto the jet with Pietro, Norah made a quick phone call to someone that she hasn’t talked to or seen since she was fifteen years old and hoped that she would be able to live through the battle so that she could actually talk to this person rather than leaving a message on their answering machine and hopefully, hopefully see them face to face someday.

Sighing, Norah entered the Jet and went to sit down near Wanda and Pietro but before she had the chance to do so she was grabbed by the forearm and basically flung into a seat beside Tony who wrapped an arm around her shoulders while glaring over at Pietro – yeah, he wasn’t getting over finding the two of them making out anytime soon. 

“Tony!” Norah admonished, glaring up into his light brown colored eyes.

Tony looked down at her, “No.” he said to her shortly and shook his head back and forth a few times to iterate what he meant. “No necking with the Sokovian boy.” He said to her snidely. “I don’t trust him.”

At that Norah rolled her eyes, “He doesn’t trust you.” She told him and then shoved his arm off of her and glared up at him. “And right now, I don’t really trust you either. You could have made a huge fucking mistake and gotten all of us killed, and why? Because you wanted to make the Ultron work like it was supposed to.” She hissed at him quietly even though she knew that everyone else could probably hear them but at least they were giving them a sense of privacy. “God Tony, you’re damn lucky that shit didn’t hit the fan.” 

“Oh stop being so dramatic Norah,” Tony said to her, anger clear in his eyes that they were going over this all over again. “It happened and I was right about this.” 

Norah crossed her arms, “Shocking.” She said sarcastically to him and gave a huff of annoyance. “I thought you were going to kill Steve, Tony. I thought you two were going to kill each other. You….you can’t kill your teammates like that. You can’t do that to the people who you are supposed to count on in a fight, that’s not how things work.” She told him in a quiet tone of voice, not really having the heart to be angry at him, he was her father and she loved him and she understood why he did what he did but she didn’t like why he did it. 

“Norah, plea-“ Tony began but Norah slapped a hand over his mouth stopping him from talking.

“I’m angry Tony, I love you but I’m angry at you.” Norah said to him softly. “I was asking you as your daughter to stop but you didn’t, you wouldn’t even listen to us or listen to why we wanted you to stop.” She said with a sad look on her face and looked away from Tony and towards the red man who had decided to be called Vision. “I can’t be around you right now.” She told him and got up from her spot beside Tony and went to sit in the front of the jet where Clint was flying the jet, he would listen to her gripe and complain if she wanted and would even listen to her about kissing Pietro without many snide or sarcastic remarks and he wouldn’t yell at her for the fact that he had been on Ultron’s side not even a week ago. 

It was frightening, what they were flying towards in Sokovia. The fight with Ultron and his metal minions was not going to be an easy or a very safe battle to be in, there was a high chance that they would die, that all of them would die before they even realized what was happening. But this was something that needed to end before it had much of a chance to begin. They needed Ultron dead so that the human race didn’t flicker out of existence like Ultron seemed to hope for.


	14. Chapter 14

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~ Minnesota: Niki ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

It had been a long day at work for Niki; two orders had gotten messed up, three brides had decided to change their catering orders and on top of that two of her workers decided to call in sick, so all and all it was a stressful day for her small catering business and now all she wanted to do was sit on her couch, watch some Netflix and drink tea. Her husband and daughter Rora were both gone at the moment, Rora had soccer practice two times a week and didn’t get done until seven at night usually and so that meant that Niki had the house to herself for at least an hour. 

Seeing a message blinking on the answering machine, Niki gave a sigh and pressed the play button as she collapsed onto the couch for a few moments before she went to her bedroom to change out of her clothes and into something more comfortable, if she even made it that far. She was tired.

“Hey Niki, it’s uh, me. Norah.” A voice that Niki hasn’t heard in almost eight years said over the machine making Niki sit ramrod straight and stare at the phone with wide, shocked eyes. “I know that we haven’t talked or seen each other in years, and well, I got this number from my friend. He found where you and ma were living now and gave me your addresses and numbers, I’ve had them for a few years now but haven’t….well I haven’t been able to make myself call you.” There was a pause before Norah continued talking. “I miss you, god Niki I miss you so fucking much and I wish I would have had a chance to talk to you rather than leaving a message on your machine but, yeah, didn’t have any choice. I’m…I’m going somewhere with my friends and teammates, something bad is going on in the world right now Niki and well my friends and I do stuff to make sure bad things don’t happen. But this time it’s different…..there’s a chance none of us will make it out alive.” 

Niki didn’t even realize that she had barely been breathing during the message, she didn’t realize that she was clenching her fists so tight into the palm of her hand that she was now bleeding.

“This thing is bad Niki, it wants to kill all of us. To kill humans and well, we’re really the only people who have the means to destroy it.” The voice of Norah said over the machine in a very somber tone of voice. “I…I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die without at least seeing you again. I don’t regret running away, I had to. I…I am a Mutant and I will always be one and I love it. I hate that I had to, I hate that….I hate the whole situation of how you and ma found out about me being a Mutant.” There was the sound of erratic breathing on the other line. “I don’t know if you want to see me again, I don’t know if you hate Mutants, I don’t know anything anymore about you or what you think but I hope that you’ll want to see me someday. If I live through this, if I don’t end up getting myself killed I want to see you Niki, I want to see you again and be sisters like we are supposed to be. I had a sister for fifteen years of my life who I could go to for anything and then when I ran away I didn’t have one anymore, I only had me. I my put on a brave face but I miss having that, having a sister. I hope to see you soon Niki. I really do.”  
There was the sound of muffled voices over the phone and Niki pressed her fingers to her lips, trying to keep herself from saying anything and missing what Norah might say to her next. 

“Niki,” Norah’s older and more mature sounding voice said. “I have to go now, we’re leaving for Eastern Europe and it’s a long flight from here. I…I love you even if you can’t love me because I’m a Mutant. I’ll see you someday.” There was a pause once again. “Bye.” 

When there was only silence after the message finished playing on the answering machine all Niki could do for ten minutes was sit there on the couch and try and hold herself together, to try and keep herself in a functioning state so that she could remember what Norah had said and comprehend what she had told her. After years and years of looking for Norah, after trying to find Norah for almost six or seven years now Niki had gotten a message, a sign that she was still alive and a way to hopefully find out where she lived now but….but now she may lose her sister anyways. Norah had said something about trying to save people with her friends and/or teammates, that this thing wanted to kill off the human race, at least that was the gist of what she got, and that she and her teammates were some of the few people that would be able to stop this thing from doing that. Norah had said that she might die, that she and all of her teammates might die from what they were doing. 

Niki’s mind was working a mile a minute and trying to think about everything that just happened all at once but she couldn’t, she was overwhelmed, she was happy, ecstatic at the fact that Norah was alive and not dead like she had been dreading for the last few years and that she wanted to talk again. God, Niki wanted to see her sister more than anything in the world. She wanted to apologize to her, to tell her she didn’t give a damn if she was a Mutant, she wanted to tell her how much she loved her, she wanted to have a relationship with her again like they used to, she wanted to have movie nights with her, she wanted her to meet her husband and she wanted her to meet her daughter Rora. 

“Please, come back alive Norah. Please.” Niki said to the silence of the room and prayed to whatever gods existed that Norah would make it through this fight that her baby sister had to go into – to save the human race.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter Fourteen

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~ Tony ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

This battle that is going to be happening in Sokovia isn’t like the other missions that the Avengers have been on before, not even close. When they went off on those other missions that they’ve been doing for the last six months to a year, well there was a good chance of them all coming out of those missions alive and with only a few injuries and a few scars to add to the collection of what they already had. But this, this was different. There was no certainty that they’d make it through the day, that they would be able to live through the battle, that they’d survive the attack of Ultron’s and be able to see their loved ones at the end of the day. But it didn’t matter if they lived or died, what mattered was that they were willing to do what’s right, to fight the good fight and hope to whatever higher being they believed in that they’d be able to beat Ultron before he succeeded. 

This was not what Tony wanted for Norah, he didn’t want her to get involved so deep in Avenger business that she had to come with them to fight Ultron but he knew, he knew that they needed her and her powers, especially her power of combustion. But it killed Tony that he had asked her for one favor – to come help him and the others in Sokovia. It was supposed to be just one mission but it ended up so much more; she had to fight against Ultron and some of his metal army, she had to fight for her life and she’s about to go into battle and is more than likely experiencing honest to god fear and terror at that thought and it killed Tony that he couldn’t protect her from that. 

This was Tony’s fault; he’s had time to dwell on that thought since Norah had refused to talk to him and had stalked off like an angry teenage girl who was told she couldn’t go to a party and had instead say by Pietro and Wanda. He didn’t like her being near them, in particular Pietro (even more so after he caught them making out) but Norah was stubborn and wouldn’t listen or do what Tony told her especially if she thought he was being an idiot about things. Tony had caused this all to happen and for the human race to be in danger like it was; he had created Ultron and then decided that it was a pipe dream, something that couldn’t feasibly happen because they didn’t have the technology yet to make something like he intended, but then they were able to get their hands on the scepter with the scepter they would be able to try and maybe have a glimmer of a chance to make the Ultron program work……things didn’t work out the way they were supposed to though.

Quietly as he could so he didn’t wake his other teammates that were take the chance to sleep before getting to Sokovia, Tony stood up from his seat near the front so that he could take over for Clint in flying the jet when he wanted him to and headed over to where Norah was sleeping. Norah was seated in the back on one of the benches that went along the wall of the jet, on one side of her was Pietro who was leaned back with his eyes closed and her other side was Wanda who was laying across the cushioned benches with her arms curled up to her chest and Norah was laying against Wanda’s sleeping form with her head laying against her hip/side area.   
“Norah.” Tony whispered to his sleeping daughter and gave a sad smile, right then she looked like a girl her age who had fallen asleep with her friend watching a bunch of chick flicks or something like that rather than a girl who was completely exhausted from all of the fighting and planning they’ve been doing in the last however many days. “Norah,” Tony said once again and lightly shook her should to wake her. “Wake up.” He whispered to her trying his hardest to not wake either Pietro or Wanda from their sleep, this was a conversation for just himself and his daughter. 

“Unngh.” Was the attractive sound that Norah made in response to Tony trying to wake her from the dead of sleep. 

“Norah,” Tony whispered as he crouched down in front of her and moved some of her curly hair out of her face that managed to escape her braid. “Norah, wake up.” 

With what looked like great effort, Norah finally managed to open her eyes and stare up at Tony with a ‘why the fuck are you bothering me’ sort of look. “What?” she asked him harshly, her voice addled with sleep at the moment. 

Tony gave a tight smile, hoping she would listen and not brush him off and tell him to go away. “I want to talk to you.” He told her.

At that Norah raised a brow at him, “You want to talk to me at…” she looked at her wrist where a bright green watch was. “Three in the damn morning?” she asked, thinking he was out of his mind and wondering why he wasn’t sleeping like most of everyone else was.

“Uhhh…yeah, basically.” He told her with a shrug of his shoulders.

Giving a sigh Norah maneuvered her face so that she could look at Tony with both of her eyes rather than one, “Fine.” She agreed reluctantly. 

When she said that Tony gave a small smile but Norah just looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to talk about whatever it was that he needed to talk to her about at three in the morning. “Norah, I’m sorry.” He whispered to her simply as he looked into her dark brown colored eyes. “I…I get why you’re pissed at me and why you were trying to stop me. I was being an ass about listening to you and you were right, I shouldn’t have been fighting Capsicle like I was. But I felt like I had to do that, I had to go all mad scientist and try…..there wasn’t any other option. Not in my mind at least.” He told her honestly and then gave a big sigh as he ran his hands through his hair. “I know I did something stupid Norah and I get you’re pissed at me and you got every right to be. I wanted to protect the world….I wanted to protect you and Pepper. Ultron was my answer.” 

“Ton-“ Norah started but Tony held up a hand, effectively quieting her. 

“I love you Norah, you know that right?” Tony questioned to which Norah nodded her head without hesitation, she may be angry but that doesn’t mean that she hates him or anything. “I never wanted kids; they’re messy, emotional, take eighteen years to grow up and then after that they are still around. I had a shit relationship with my own father as you know and that made me put off from wanting kids – ever. But you,” he said and gave a genuine happy smile on his face as he looked at her. “You were like nothing else Norah, you didn’t keep quiet about not liking Fury telling you what to do, you made your intentions known with SHIELD and told them you wouldn’t be used for your powers and that you wouldn’t join their ranks. I heard about you from Natasha and Clint, I knew of you but never really went through the effort of meeting you. I’m Tony Stark, why would I.” he said sarcastically. “But then you opened your mouth and called Fury Patchy I had to get to know you. I acted without thinking though, something I do a lot of, and decided I was going to bring you home and let you live with me and Pepper. You amused me, I couldn’t let you live in those sad excuse of a living quarters that Fury gave you.” He said to her with a wry grin on his face. “Pepper thought I had lost my mind and told me to take you back to the headquarters because she thought I’d get bored eventually, that I’d ignore you soon enough but I proved her wrong.”

During this small speech of Tony’s all Norah could do was stare at the man, stare and wonder what exactly he was getting at. “Tony wha-“ she began but he pressed a finger to her lips a bit harder than was necessary. 

“You are my daughter Norah,” Tony said to her with a wavering smile, feeling so many emotions right now over this heart to heart he was having with Norah at the moment. “I don’t care if your birth father finds you somehow and tries to stake claim on you. I am your father and no one can change that. You are important to me and I hate that I hurt you, that I disappointed you and that I made you afraid of me.” He said to her. 

When he said that Norah furrowed her brows, “You didn’t scare me.” She told him as she looked at him in confusion.   
Tony gave her a pointed look, “I saw the look on your face, I saw the fear.” He told her simply.

“I was afraid of how you were acting, of what you were saying not of you.” Norah said as she reached over and flicked him in the ear in reprimand for thinking that.

Tony pulled away from Norah and glared at her, “Ow, what the hell?” he asked as he looked at her in annoyance.  
All Norah did was roll her eyes at him, “Oh, come one. That didn’t even hurt you big baby.” She said to him in amusement and then the two just looked at one and another, glad to have the air cleared between one and another. “I love you too Tony, you’re the only one I consider a father. Even when I was around my father he was never a father to me, he could walk up to me right now and I would not hesitate to tell him what I think of him and to tell him that I do not consider him a father. You’re my dad.” She told him before she got a twinkle in her eye. “Sure sucks to be you.” She grinned at him. 

Tony gave a loud snort at that, “I’ll get over it I think.” He said to her and brushed his knuckles over her cheek in a loving fashion. “You got lucky though, getting a genius and rather amazing father. Damn.” He told her.  
“Whatever,” Norah said as she shook her head and yawned again. “As much as I’d love to stay up and talk more I’m going to sleep.” She said to him as she slowly lay her head back down on Wanda and curled her feet up and rested them on Pietro’s lap. 

Smiling, Tony stood up from his rather painful crouched position – he wasn’t a twenty year old anymore – and lightly kissed Norah’s forehead before he left her tired figure and headed back to the front of the jet so he could trade spots with Clint and fly the Jet for a while so that Clint could get some sleep in. 

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~ Sokovia ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

Arriving in Sokovia was terrifying; this is where it ends and where they try and save every living person and thing on the Earth before Ultron can get to them. Sokovia is where they do all they can to stop Ultron from becoming the destruction of the humans and of the world, this is where they all fight for the right to live and this could be the place where they all could die. None of them quite knew what the possible outcome of this day….of this battle could be, but they were here nonetheless – come what may. 

Stepping out of the jet into the early morning air Norah looked out at the city where Ultron had decided the battle needed to take place and sighed; they could try and get everyone out of the city, they could help them make an escape but no matter what it would not be able to save everyone even if they wished it could. Pulling her gaze away Norah saw that Pietro was standing off and away from everyone else and looking at the country where he and his sister had been born, the place where he had been raised and the place where his parents had died. 

Approaching slowly, Norah came up behind Pietro and slowly ran one of her hands up his back and to his shoulder where she left it and looked up into his conflicting face,“Are you okay Pietro?” she questioned in concern, earlier he had seemed confident or at least ready to get back here and take on Ultron and take him down but now he looked as if he wasn’t sure what he should do or needed to do. 

Pietro turned to look down at Norah and give her a smirk but all that he managed to give her was a half assed attempt at a frown. “I made a mistake,” he admitted after a bit of silence. “Wanda and I both. We joined Ultron to make better world, we hated your Avengers and your Tony Stark – I still do, but less now – I did not think it would be this. I did not think Ultron would become this. I regret this.” 

“We’ve all made mistakes before Pietro, it’s a-“ Norah began to say but was cut off by Pietro before she could finish her thought.

“Not like this.” Pietro said angrily and reached up and clasped Norah’s hand that was still on his shoulder and hung his head. “People could have died because of Wanda and I being with Ultron, if she tried hard enough she could kill with her power. She’s strong.” He told her. 

Rather than saying anything at the moment Norah just stood there and let him clasp her hand in his; she could understand his anger and guilt at what had happened before and why he felt like this. She, too had felt like this at one point in time….a few points in time before. Her power of combustion, of being able to blow things up, was not always so easy to control and she had a few accidents before and had hurt a few of her fellow classmates without meaning to do so and had nearly taken a whole wall of the school out once when she was getting angry and pissed off with one of the girls a dorm or two down from her. Professor had to incapacitate the two of them before they did much damage to one and another or any of the student body. 

“You didn’t though Pietro.” Norah said to him softly. “Before there was a chance of it getting ugly and before you could have caused any deaths you stopped and got yourself and your sister out of that situation and decided to help us.” She said to him soothingly, wondering where exactly these thoughts of his were coming from. “Life sucks sometimes Pietro; there is no getting around that. It sucks, it’s horrible and you wish you could rewind it sometimes, but you can’t.” she said to him from personal experience. “You just gotta deal with what you got and go along for the ride and hope for the best.” She said with a half-smile on her face and then turned a bit so that she could look up into his eyes playfully. “’Sides, of you hadn’t of gone with Ultron you wouldn’t have met my bodacious self, would you?” she questioned him with a wink and then leaned up and kissed his cheek chastely when she noticed that Steve and the others were gathering to go over the plan once again. 

Steve looked around him at the people that he called friends and family, he looked at Vision who they all thought was going to turn out like Ultron or worse, he looked at Pietro and Wanda who were willingly risking their lives to help them and hoped, he hoped that this would be enough. That this plan of theirs would work. 

“This won’t be easy.” Steve said to them suddenly as he looked at everyone trying to convey how serious he was about that. “This won’t be like other missions that we’ve gone on before, this won’t be an in and out quickly sort of mission either. This will be just as dangerous, if not more so than the battle of New York but instead of them wanting to take us over Ultron wants to kill us all off and doesn’t care how he does it as long as it happens.” He said seriously as his eyes swiftly looked over at the city where Ultron was, waiting for the right moment to attack and kill everyone and everything in sight. “Don’t do anything stupid and don’t take any chances that will get you killed.”

Tony spoke up from within his Iron Man suit, “And if we get killed?” he asked. 

Steve looked at Tony for a moment, “Walk it off.” He said in an almost dead serious tone of voice, leaving no room for anyone to get themselves killed while fighting against Ultron and his metal minions. 

With that said Steve began the trek away from the jet and down towards the city to help in any way he could to evacuate the people of Sokovia. Everyone had jobs to do to help; Wanda was going to use her powers to convince people that they needed to leave their homes as soon as possible and get out of the city, Pietro was going to go to the Police Station and tell them they are being attacked (and somehow convincing them it was true) and other businesses so that they all had a chance to escape, Norah was going to be using her power to help bring people out of the city and any that either don’t have transportation or weren’t able bodied enough to do so and Bruce was heading towards wherever it was that they knew Natasha was being kept at and was going to get her out. Thor, Tony, Clint and Vision were doing who knows what but whatever it was it was something to help and something that would hopefully help them defeat Ultron. 

Everyone began to make their way towards the city to do their designated jobs but before Pietro was able to wander off towards the city as well Norah grabbed him by the collar of the tight shirt he was wearing, a shirt that showed off his torso amazingly, and pulled him down to her height and looked him in the eye fiercely. 

Pietro looked at her with amusement and curiosity, “Yes?” he asked with a smirk on his face.

“Try to not get yourself killed, I get that your super-fast and all but that doesn’t mean that you still won’t get killed or injured.” Norah told him with a pointed look, silently telling him he isn’t invincible.

Hearing that Pietro smiled at Norah, “Do not worry moj mali bik, I will be fine. You don’t do anything stupid, yes?” he said and pressed his forehead against hers. “You owe me, we are same team now.” 

For a moment Norah was confused as to what he was talking about but when realization hit she couldn’t help but grin a bit, “A situation where less clothing is involved.” She said with a small laugh. “I’ll do my best to make sure that happens after this.” 

“Good.” Pietro said and quickly pressed a kiss to her lips before speeding off into the city. 

Looking out at the city Norah nodded to herself, it was time to go and act like the super hero’s that the Avengers were known for; it was time to help save the world.

~_~_~_~_~_~.~_~_~_~_~_~_~._~_~_~_~._~_~_~_~_~_~.~_~_~_~

It was complete and utter chaos around her at the moment; one second she was helping people escape from Sokovia which was about to become the middle of a battle ground between Ultron and the Avengers and the next thing that Norah knew there were dozens upon dozens of Ultron’s metal minions coming up and out of everywhere possible and began to attack every person that was in sight of them be it a civilian or the Avengers. They didn’t care who they were attacking just that they were human and that they needed to be destroyed – according to Ultron at least. 

“Is this what Christian’s hell is supposed to look like?” Norah asked quietly as she tried to take in all that was happening around her, she knew that she had to jump in the fray and fight but seeing so many people flee for their lives and the lives of their family members was horrifying to see, it was burned into her mind. 

“Norah!” The voice of Clint interrupted her from her train of thought. “Get your head in the game, you need to fight. Okay.” He said to her.

At that Norah nodded to herself, “Yeah, yeah. I know.” She said and shook her head to dispel those previous thoughts from her mind. 

Taking a deep breath Norah looked closely at what was happening around her and what she was needed to do, if any of her Avenger teammates were around her and needed help and if there were any civilians around that needed her to save them from the metal minions. As horrifying as it was to see something like this – to see what a war might look like in real life – she needed to not think about, she had to clear her mind of everything that wasn’t related to the battle and to defeating Ultron and get her head in the game as Clint said and start fighting. She couldn’t be an actual Avenger without fighting, she couldn’t be the hero that all of her family was if she didn’t try to help. 

So with that thought in mind Norah didn’t hesitate to throw herself into the fray and Blinked herself straight over to a woman and a young girl who couldn’t have been more than five years old, a minion standing not but three feet from them and was raising its hands up in a threatening manner and was more than likely intending on injuring or killing them with a blast. Before the minion had a chance to realize what was happening Norah had grasped both mother and daughter by the shoulder and Blinked them from the middle of the city to the outskirts of the city where everyone was making their escape. Giving a gentle smile at the young brown haired girl Norah once again Blinked herself back to where she was and began to run, duck, dive, block and do every single other thing that she could possibly remember about fighting and trying to kill the damn metal minions of Ultron’s. Things that didn’t deserve to be alive, to exist, to do anything at all. 

Blinking herself about five blocks up the street Norah turned down an alley and stopped suddenly when she saw three minions standing in front of her, the moment they noticed her they switched their attention from getting ready to take off into the air to her and stalking towards her in a threatening fashion. Okay, so Norah may have had a freak out earlier when the fighting started happening but she’s never been in a fight around civilians and so she may have been thinking a bit irrationally but she can fight against the bad guys, she knows how to deal with the bad guys that are trying to kill her and those she cares about. These metal minions guys are nothing.

“This seems fun.” Norah said to no one in particular as she eyed the metal minions that were making their way towards her.

Smiling a bit sadistically Norah held her hands out in front of her loosely and the moment that the minions were where she wanted them she flicked her hands out towards them in an almost violent manner and then Blinked herself further away from them and the alley and smiled when she saw bits and pieces of them fly up into the air above where they had been. She doesn’t use her combustion power as much as she does her Blinking from one place to another but she does know how to control it with ease now – SHIELD helped a lot with that. 

Turning around and heading back to the street and running down it Norah weaved in-between all of the panicking people, she wished she could help them all now but she had to keep the metal minions of Ultron’s away from them and kill them as fast as she could. Suddenly there was a blast right in front of her face that missed her by centimeters, backing away a bit she saw two of the metal minions aiming again so not even taking the time to think Norah dropped to the ground and pulled herself under a truck and to the other side of the sidewalk before she crouched beside the truck and waited a few moments, it would only be a few moments before the minions would either come around the truck or jump on top of it to get to her. 

Trying to quiet her breathing Norah listened closely and not even half a minute later she heard the tell-tale signs of the minions jumping on top of the truck, effectively ruining the car, the moment they peered over the side Norah turned towards them and used her power to separated their limbs from the rest of their metal bodies and then flicked her hands at their heads and torso to be sure they wouldn’t be able to do anymore damage.

Before Norah had a chance to Blink herself from where she was at the moment and to a different part of the city there was a large rumble sound coming from every direction, it felt as if there was an earth quake happening right beneath her feet and she could even hear car alarms and alarms from local businesses going off. The rumbling and the ground beneath her feet moving so erratically forced Norah to fall right into a car that was parked askew in the middle of the street, giving a slight groan Norah tried to look around to see what was going on but she couldn’t really see much of anything.

“What the hell is going on?” Norah asked through the comms as she struggled to get back onto her own two feet after being forced to the ground. “Don’t tell me that there’s a sudden earth quake on top of having to deal with Ultron because I just might lose my shit then.” 

It was Steve who answered her, “The city is breaking away and…well, it seems that the city is going to be flying.” He told her straight to the point. 

For a moment Norah just blinked a few times and wondered curiously if Steve had just told the world’s worst joke or if he was dead serious about the city being uprooted and flying in the air, “You’ve got to be joking.” She said to him in an unbelievable tone of voice. 

Turning quickly Norah saw two metal minions approaching a young girl and guy who looked to be around Norah’s age and before the minions or the couple knew what was going on Norah had flicked her one hand at it and blew it to bits before it had a chance to harm them and kill them like they were ordered to do. 

“Wish I was kid.” Steve said to her which made Norah scowl at being called a kid, physically speaking Steve was only about five years older than her, tops. 

“I really hate it when you call me kid, old man.” Norah said back to Steve as she Blinked herself away from where she was once she was certain the street and the alley way near her were cleared of people and of any of the metal minions. 

Steve laughed at that, “Yeah, yeah. I know.” He told her.

After that Norah lapsed into silence and carefully began to make her way through the streets again without using her power, she needed to be careful where she Blinked herself to just in case there were minions or Ultron sitting in wait for the perfect opportunity. Norah may be able to act pretty damn fast with her Blinking power but there’s always a chance that just one time she may not react fast enough and end up getting herself killed or worse.   
It was kind of impossible to believe what was going on at the moment; a city flying up above the Earth by who knows how much and quite personally Norah really didn’t want to know, they are being targeted by a murder crazy robot that wants to kill off the human race and on top of all of that all Norah wanted was to be lazy on a couch while watching some Walking Dead and eat ice cream right out of the tub – preferably mint chocolate chip. This Ultron was really starting to piss her off and if he makes her miss an episode of the Walking Dead or Sleepy Hollow she was going to be pissed and she would try and take him on herself just to end this once and for all, who knows if she’d end up dead or alive but it’s the thought that counts. 

For about fifteen minutes Norah made her way around the area she was in seeing if there were any people remaining in the general vicinity and taking out any of the metal minions that she may come across which only ended up being three or four thankfully. Taking a sharp corner Norah looked up and saw a blur heading straight and not even a moment later Pietro stopped right in front of her, a playful grin on his face as he looked down into hers. 

“Hello.” Pietro said to her as he pushed some of her hair back behind her ear that escaped while she was running, Blinking and fighting. “I told you I would not get myself killed.” He told her arrogantly.

At that Norah scoffed at him and poked him in the shoulder, “The battle’s not over yet Pietro, don’t get too full of yourself.” She told him and then glanced over his shoulder but the moment she did her eyes widened, there standing about ten or so feet from where they were was at least ten or fifteen metal minions. “Shit.” 

The moment Norah whispered that Pietro turned around so quickly that she didn’t even register that he had done so until she saw the back of his head. “I take care of this, you go.” He said and was about to get ready to run at them to get rid of them before they attacked him and Norah but before he was able to do that Norah laid a hand on his chest and shook her head. “Norah, what are you doing?” he questioned.

“I’ll take care of this Pietro.” Norah said with a hint of a smirk on her face as she walked forward but Pietro grasped onto her arm before she could make it a step.

Pietro gave her a look of panic, “How?” he asked her, his eyes wide. “You will…Blink then to different place?” he asked, confused as to what she could do and worried for her safety. 

At that Norah shook her head, “No, but trust me, I’ll be fine. Just….just don’t get in the line of fire of my hands or arms. It won’t end up all that pretty.” She told him mostly in a serious tone before she stepped forward towards the minions and looked at the murder crazy robots that were trying to kill them. 

Moving her arms to the side a bit and raising them until they were level with her chest and faced towards the minions Norah concentrated as hard as she could to build up as much power as she possibly could so that she could use it to destroy each and every single one of the minions that were standing in front of her and Pietro at the moment. Taking a deep breath Norah slowly let it out before she basically thrust her arms forwards towards the minions and then quickly flicked her hands at them as well and not a moment later did each and every last one of them exploded into bits and pieces of metal that littered the street that they were standing in at the moment. 

While that had been going on Pietro could not help but keep a close eye on Norah and on the minions of Ultron’s that were trying to kill them; Norah may have told him that she could take care of this and to not worry but he was not sure what she had up her sleeve, what she had planned for them and wanted to be able to whisk her away and out of danger if she was unable to take care of the robots like she said she could. This though, this was definitely not what he was expecting. 

“I told you I could take care of it.” Norah said with a smirk on her face as she looked at Pietro and lazily laid her hand on her hip in a ‘told you so’ sort of action. 

Pietro looked at her in awe, “How?” he questioned curiously, wanting to know how this girl….woman who he had thought only could Blink from place to place now could make things explode. 

Norah shrugged at his question, “I have two powers.” She told him simply, as if she was talking about the weather or work. 

Suddenly and without warning Pietro appeared in front of Norah and pulled her to him tightly as he looked down into her face. “That,” he said in a rough sounding voice as he looked into her dark brown eyes heatedly. “Was sexy, it should not make me hot but it does.” He admitted to her honestly as he pressed his hips into her so that she could feel how hot he found her destroying Ultron’s minions with her other power was. “Incredibly sexy.” 

Leaning down, Pietro quickly cradled the back of her head and pulled her to him so that he could lean down and kiss her with all he was worth; wanting to show her how much that affected him and how happy he was that she was okay and was still alive and kicking. Smiling into the kiss Norah lifted one of her hands up and traced the area where he had facial hair that wasn’t hindered by the two of them kissing – she found facial hair incredibly sexy.

“Hey Norah, Pietro.” Clint’s voice said suddenly over their ear comms. “Great that you two have a thing going on or whatever, I really don’t care to tell the truth but guys, we’re kinda in the middle of a battle can you wait until this is over to make out and say that kind of shit. I really didn’t need to know what makes the Speedster hot.” 

At that Norah couldn’t help but give a laugh at how uncomfortable Clint sounded when he said that, looking up at Pietro she placed one last quick kiss on the corner of his lips before moving away from Pietro so she wouldn’t be tempted to touch him and think naughty things about him and his beautiful torso that she caught of glimpse of in the locker room. Gesturing towards the street with her head, Norah looked at Pietro and mouthed the words go at him to which he hesitated for a moment and looked at her before giving a reluctant nod and taking off in nothing but a blur. 

Giving a sigh Norah ran her hands over her hair that was amazingly still in the braid she put it in when the left Stark Tower and began to run down the street and Blink herself around the area checking for people like she had been doing earlier and making sure there were no straggler minions in the area waiting for the perfect moment to attack. It may be fall right now but all of this running, fighting and Blinking all over the place was really starting to make Norah sweat and feel sticky which she was not a fan of at this particular moment; if she’s going to be feeling like that she’d rather it be from something fun like bedroom gymnastics or from working out in the gym or something along those lines. 

“We’re clear here.” Clint said over the ear comm. 

“Clear in my area too.” Norah responded.

There was the sound of a pain filled grunt and heavy breathing before Steve responded over the ear comm, “We are not clear, we are very not clear here.” Steve yelled through his comm with the accompanying sounds of fighting going on in the background. 

Clint was the one who responded first, “All right, coming your way.” He said to him.

“Be there in a blink of an eye.” Norah said with a small giggle, unable to help herself but use that phrase, surprisingly she doesn’t get the chance as often as she would like.

When Tony and the others heard her say that there was a collective groan and/or sigh through the comms at her bad attempt of a joke – they have no taste when it comes to cheesy jokes sadly. 

Tony sighed through the comm, “Oh come on Norah, really? First you kiss Speedy Gonzales which we all heard and now you’re telling cheesy jokes? You going to start telling horrible dad jokes next?” he asked her sarcastically.

“Shut up,” Norah defended herself before she quickly Blinked herself from where she was standing in an abandoned street somewhere in the city and to the bridge where Steve, Natasha and a few of the others were fighting off Ultron’s metal army at. 

It wasn’t that pretty of a sight either, they seemed to be surrounded and every time they killed a few off more would suddenly appear to take their place in fighting against the Avengers. It seemed as if it was a losing battle against the metal minions of Ultron’s, something that they all were getting pretty damn sick of. 

So with pursed lips Norah jumped right besides Steve and Natasha and began to help fight the metal army off as best she could and being extra cautious of where everyone was when she decided to use her more dangerous power to destroy the metal minions and rip them apart. It would do no good to do that to close to one of her teammates and accidentally knock one of them out from stray metal pieces simply because Norah decided to not be conscientious of where everyone was standing and how close they were to her and the metal guys. 

Out of the corner of her eye Norah saw that both Pietro and Wanda had arrived but still no sign of Clint, she assumed he would be at least five or ten more minutes since he didn’t have the power of super speed like Pietro had. Turning away from where Pietro and Wanda were – she needed to concentrate on what was happening right in front of her – she continued fighting with all she had, she punched even if it hurt like a bitch, she blocked, she Blinked away before they managed to get their hands on her, she kicked at them and dodged them and basically did everything and anything possible to fight these guys and keep them away from the innocent people of the city. She’d rather have them be distracted by her then by some innocent bystander who doesn’t know how to fight unlike Norah. 

“Hold your fire!” an accented voice suddenly shouted from a few feet away from where Norah was and she assumed it was the police who had joined in taking fire and fighting against Ultron’s metal army. 

Norah couldn’t really worry herself about that right now, she had too much on her plate to worry about as it was. Taking a slow, deep breath of air Norah cleared her mind of everything that was going on and all of her worries about what was going on and concentrated on the fight and on having Steve and Natasha’s back. Couldn’t be called a team if you don’t have one and another’s backs in situations like this. 

“Norah!” Natasha yelled to gain the younger girls attention who had just destroyed two of Ultron’s metal guys and were now laying in a lump at Norah’s feet.

Norah looked over at Natasha questioningly, “What?” she yelled back while she looked from her to her surroundings so to not be caught by surprise. 

“We need to get these people inside,” Natasha said to her and then gestured to the brick and glass building that was behind where she was standing and were a few of the people were making their way towards, but most were in a panicky mess and weren’t sure what to do or where to go. 

Giving a nod Norah suddenly appeared in front of Natasha who stepped back in surprise at her sudden appearance but soon pointed Norah off in a direction of where some people were at and then went her own way to start helping some of the people into the building that they were going to be using as a refuge for the time being. Until they could think up of a plan, until they were able to defeat Ultron…..if that was even possible because honestly, right now it was looking like they were on a slippery slope and they didn’t seem to be on the winning side of it. 

Norah went up to an older couple who looked to be in their late seventies to mid-eighties if she had to guess, both of whom looked like they couldn’t move all that fast or all that well if the walker that the woman had clutched in her hands was anything to go by. So approaching them with a soft and welcoming smile Norah did her best to communicate with them but they were old and did not know much English as was common with their age group, so doing the best she could Norah told them she was going to take them into the building and for them to not move. Gently but with steady hands Norah grasped first onto the woman who was holding her walker and then onto the man who had an arm wrapped around his wife and then Blinked herself and then up to the building and near a bench so that they could sit down immediately, being Blinked from one place to another did not feel all that nice the first time around. Pietro, Steve and the others could attest to that. 

As Norah continued helping get people from outside into the building that they were using for safety, at least for the moment, she listened in on the conversation that she could hear Steve and Tony having through the ear comm that was in her ear at the moment. 

“The next wave is going to hit any minute, what have you got Stark?” Steve asked the billionaire. 

There was a sigh on Tony’s end when Steve asked him that, “Nothing great. Maybe a way to blow up the city, try and keep it from impacting the surface as soon as you guys get clear.” He told him.

Steve gave a small grunt, “I asked for a solution not an escape plan.” He pointed out to him.

“The impact radius is getting bigger every second, we’re gonna have to make a choice.” Tony said to him solemnly at what was happening around him and thought that this was definitely not how he wanted things to play out. 

After hearing those words Norah stopped listening to what Tony and Steve were talking about and instead Blinked herself inside of the building and pushed herself up against one of the windows that looked out to what was going on outside and brought her hands up to the sides of her head and dug them into the hair that was there. Norah didn’t want to believe what Steve and Tony were insinuating, that they won’t have a way to escape the floating city and even if they do somehow find a way to get off of the city and get everyone else off of it there would still be the Ultron problem to deal with and if they don’t get rid of him right then and there it was more than likely that he would end up killing the human race before they could even make a plan of attack on him again. 

Without even realizing it tears suddenly sprang out from Norah’s eyes and slowly began to make their way down her face and no matter how many times she tried to wipe at them and to make them stop she couldn’t. She didn’t want to die, she wanted to reconnect with her older sister Niki, she wanted to meet any family members that her sister may have gained in the last eight or so years, she wanted to see her mother again even if the last time she saw her she wanted to ‘fix’ Norah of her Mutant problem, she wanted to be able to use her University degree that she only just got and she….and she wanted to get to know Wanda and Pietro.

“Norah.” A soft accented voice said to her and grasped her hands with soft feminine hands which clued Norah in that it was Wanda who had come up to her. “Norah it’s all right.” She said to her softly as she slowly removed Norah’s hands from where she had been grasping at her hair. 

At that Norah couldn’t help but give a dark laugh, “No it’s not. No it’s not Wanda. We aren’t making any headway, we kill and kill and kill more of those damn metal soldiers but we aren’t making much of a dent.” She told her and gave a sad smile at that simple fact and wished she had some vodka to drink before she died. “Ultron is-“

Before Norah had a chance to say anything else Wanda grasped her by the upper arms harshly and looked her in the eye with a steely resolve, “No, listen to me Norah.” She told her. “Do not give up; do not lose hope that we won’t be able to win this. We can and we will. You are Avenger, you must fight like one and believe like one. You have gifts Norah,” she said as she grabbed Norah’s hands in hers. “You have gifts and you must use to help. Don’t lose hope Norah. We must, absolutely must succeed in defeating Ultron because if we don’t he wins and will kill all humans.” She told her.

At that Norah slowly breathed in and out a few times before giving a definite nod, agreeing to what Wanda was trying to tell her. “Thank you. I…I don’t know why I was thinking that.” She admitted a bit sheepishly at how she acted.

“It is fine, all have days like that.” Wanda told her and then pulled Norah into a hug which she accepted without any hesitance. 

Norah pulled back with wide eyes when she heard a voice she was not expecting to hear come through her ear comm, quickly before Wanda had a chance to ask what was going on she made her way outside and down the steps and looked over in the direction were both Steve and Natasha were and saw Helicarriers.

“Patchy?” Norah questioned in disbelief as she looked past the city limits of the floating city and grinned at the fact that Fury had their back and brought the cavalry. 

There was a heavy sigh on Fury’s end before he answered, “Yeah Sjoholm, fancy seeing you here.” He said to her with a tone of fondness and frustration all at the same time. “Pulled them out of storage, they’re a little dusty but they’ll do.” 

Steve shook his head from beside Natasha, “Fury you son of a bitch.” He said with a small smile as he looked over at the Helicarriers. 

“Oooh, you kiss your mother with that mouth?” Fury asked in amusement. 

There was a gust of wind from beside Norah and she knew without a doubt that it was Pietro, who when she turned to look at him had an amazed look on his face when he saw the Helicarrier flying beside the floating city that they thought they had no way to get off of. 

Pietro looked over at Norah and then back at the Helicarrier, “This is SHIELD?” he questioned.

“What SHIELD is supposed to be.” Steve answered to him simply. 

At that Pietro gave a half smile, “This, not so bad.” He admitted as he looked over at Norah and reached over and squeezed her hand for a moment before letting it go. 

It only took moments for the life boats, as Fury called them, to come out from some secret compartment on the Helicarrier and begin to make their way towards the floating city so that they could load up all of the civilians and get them off of the city as soon and as fast as possible. Though, they so needed to change the name of lifeboats to something else, something that fit more because quite simply they didn’t look anything close to being a lifeboat. But SHIELD will do whatever SHIELD wants. 

“Let’s load them up.” Steve said and then looked over at Pietro. “Can you try and ward off any of Ultron’s metal suits while we’re loading them up?” he asked and Pietro gave a nod before taking off once again. 

It didn’t even take a minute for everyone to see the lifeboats heading towards them before they all started bursting out of the brick building and heading towards where the boats were approaching them, they were all desperate to get off of the city as soon as possible and go back down to the ground – where it doesn’t float up above the ground. So Steve, Norah, Wanda and Clint went to help everyone onto the lifeboats as quickly and safely as they possibly could and trying to keep everyone from panicking and making a mass flood of people onto the boasts. 

“I’ve got a plan.” Tony said through the ear comms once again.

It was Thor who responded to him, “We’re running out of time. They’re coming for the core.” He said to them in a dead serious tone of voice. 

Tony made a sound of understanding, “Get the rest of the people on board of that carrier. Avengers,” he said and waiting to make sure they were listening to him, dramatic man that he was. “Time to work for a living.” 

Vodka was needed when this was all done and over with, the good stuff that Norah keeps stored in a secret place that not even Tony has been able to figure out the location of. All it seems that they are doing is running, fighting, pausing to help and then once again running away from or to the metal minions, fighting once again and then pausing to help once again before the cycle continues once again. She just wants this to be over with, she wants Ultron to be destroyed once and for all so that she doesn’t have to worry about him coming after her friends and family any longer or worry about him trying to kill off the human race. 

They headed to where the core was – the church where Pietro and Wanda had first met Ultron and decided to join him. This was the place where they needed to be so that they could protect the core from all of Ultron’s metal minions and protect it from Ultron himself, there’s no telling what will happen if Ultron gets what he wants in the end. Definitely nothing good, that was for sure. 

“Norah!” Tony said once he was within shouting distance of the church and strode inside without looking at anyone else, his eyes looking at his daughter in concern. “Are you all right?” he asked.

At that Norah rolled her eyes and pushed on the metal of his suit, “Fine, Tony. Promise.” She told him and gave a scouts honor sort of salute to him to show him that she was genuine about that. 

Tony looked down at her through the eyes of the suit “I heard you talking to Wanda.” He told her and cocked his head to the side curiously. 

“I’m fine,” Norah said waving her hands dismissively. “Lapse of….judgement? Of sanity.” She said with a nod of her head. “Its fine now, promise.” She told him. 

He gave a nod of his Iron Man head and then looked out of the arches of the church they were in, “Romanoff you and Banner better not be playing hide the zucchini.” He said jokingly, wondering where they were.

At that Norah shook her head at her father and wondered about his sanity, and wondered how in the world no one has tried to kill him from his sarcasm, jokes and asshole comments that he tended to make a good majority of the time. In fact, how Pepper hasn’t murdered him in a fit of rage and frustration was shocking. 

There was a hand on Norah’s cheek suddenly, pulling her attention from her thoughts to what was going on in front of her. “You are okay?” he asked as he looked at her in concern.

Pietro had also heard Norah and Wanda’s conversation through the ear comm he was wearing but he wasn’t going to drill her or ask her repeatedly if she was all right, now wasn’t exactly the time for that and besides, he heard the outcome of the conversation the two females had and he knew that he had nothing to worry about. Norah was having a small breakdown during a battle; it wasn’t unusual or unheard of. 

“So,” Natasha said as she walked in and joined everyone. “What’s the drill?” she questioned curiously, a raised brow directed over at Steve and Tony. 

Tony gestured over towards the core that was in the middle of the building, “This.” He said as Natasha looked over in that direction before pulling her eyes away and giving Tony an expectant look. “If Ultron gets his hands on the core we lose.” 

Not even a second after Tony had explained that to Natasha did Hulk drop out of the sky or wherever it was that he was and he dropped right out in front of the church and crushed one of the Ultron’s metal men when he had landed, effectively destroying the machine without much effort. Once Hulk had joined them Ultron decided to make his face known finally after having the majority of the Avengers fighting against his minions rather than him himself, he was maybe fifteen feet from where they stood in the church, surrounding the core protectively refusing to let Ultron get what he wants. 

Thor looked at Ultron in anger and frustration, “Is that the best you can do?” he challenged him threateningly with his hammer that he held in his hand. 

Steve gave a heavy sigh when Thor said that and then looked out at Ultron and saw the metal army that Ultron had called to him and saw at least twenty or thirty of them if not more than that. “You had to ask didn’t you.” He said to Thor rhetorically. 

Ultron stretched his arms out from his sides and then gestured to his metal army, “This is the best I can do. This is exactly what I wanted, all of you against all of me. How could you possibly hope to stop me?” he questioned a sadistic grin on his face as he looked over the Avengers that were assembled in front of him. 

Tony looked over at Steve and then at Ultron, “Well, like the old man said. Together.” He explained to him simply. 

Hulk glared at Ultron and the others and gave a mighty roar in warning, when he did that Norah looked over at Hulk with a grin before looking back to Ultron. “What he said.” She said to him defiantly and then let her arms out loose and got ready for the attack that was about to be going on in a manner of seconds.

“You do not need to do this Ultron.” Vision said, to try and reason with him and what the angry machine was doing.

“Oh, no. No, no, no.” Ultron said as he looked at Vision, the body he was supposed to have had. “I do. I really do.” He said to him and then looked at his army and they suddenly surged forwards towards the Avengers. 

It was instantaneous; Natasha, Hulk, Tony, Vision, Thor, Pietro, Wanda, Norah and Clint all started to fight with Ultron’s minions within seconds and were doing their damndest to keep them all away from the core as well as away from one and another which was one of the more complicating tasks. They would get rid of one and another would take its place, Ultron was doing all that he could to have these metal men that he controlled get at the Avengers and get to the core so he could do whatever diabolical deed he wanted to do. 

Norah was fighting near Clint and was doing her best to be careful with her powers and to make sure that she didn’t accidentally take a wall out while trying to hit one of the metal minions, they could move suddenly and Norah could be already committed to the motion of using her power and it could take a wall out without her meaning to or that being the original target. It happened a few times back at Xavier’s but back then she hadn’t been at her full potential like she is now. 

Before Norah had a chance to realize what was happening there was one of the metal minions had grabbed Norah and threw her against the wall hard enough that it took her a few moments to get her bearings and for her vision to focus. She heard the shouts of her name from Tony, Pietro and her other teammates but she ignored them, shook her head a bit before she stood back up and threw herself at the minion who had thrown her against the wall and wrapped her legs around it’s torso before she took the knife that she had in her boot out and shoved it forcefully through the head of the thing and then jumped off of its back and flicked her hands at it so it was nothing but a heap at her feet. 

Fighting and fighting and fighting, that’s all that they were doing and that’s all it seems that they will ever do but Norah would rather fight till she breaths her last breath than be killed simply because she decided to give up from how hopeless something may or may not be. 

Glancing to the left Norah saw that there was a metal minion going after Natasha who was already fighting two other ones and so Norah quickly ran over the few feet it took to get to Natasha and then grabbed her shoulder roughly without meaning to and Blinked her out of the way of the metal man that was about to slam his fist into the top of her head. Something that could possibly kill her depending on the strength that the minion would have used on her and Norah would really rather not chance finding that out. 

“Thanks.” Natasha said before she headed back into the fight once again. 

Looking straight upwards Norah saw that there were a whole bunch of the metal men coming at them from above, or at least that was what their intention was but Norah wasn’t about to let that happen. So, raising her hands upwards towards where there were she quickly flicked her hands upwards towards tem and forced them to explode to bits and pieces of metal in a backwards direction with only a few pieces falling to the ground where the Avengers were fighting at the moment. 

Soon it was obvious that Ultron was not going to be able to get past any of them, they were all too stubborn and hated Ultron much too much to let him through and Vision, Thor and Tony stepped outside to confront Ultron and blasted him with their powers. Thor using his lightening power, Vision using the mind stone and Tony using the power in his suit to blast at Ultron. 

“You know with a –“ Ultron began to say to them but was cut off unexpectedly by Hulk leaping at him and throwing his fist right into the middle of his face which resulted in Ultron flying out of their current vicinity and across the city far away from where the Avengers were at the moment. 

Hulk turned from the spot that Ultron had just been in and looked at the metal minions that still remained and growled at them, challenging them to try something but they looked at him for a moment before taking off into the skies to escape from the flying city and from the Avengers who only wanted to kill them. 

“They’re trying to leave the city.” Thor said as he watched the metal army fly off and away from them.

Tony shook his head, “We can’t let them, not even one. Rhodey?” he questioned through his ear comm.

“On it.” Rhodey said in affirmation. 

Steve was looking at everyone that now stood with him in the room, looking every part the leader of the group. “We gotta move out, even I can tell the air’s getting thin.” He said and then looked at Clint, Natasha and Norah. “You guys get to the boats. I’ll do a sweep for stragglers and be right behind you.” He said.

Clint furrowed his brows, “What about the core?” he questioned, they couldn’t leave it alone in case Ultron or one of the metal minions came back for it. 

“I’ll protect it.” Wanda said as she looked over at Clint seriously and then over at Steve. “It’s my job.” She said with certainty. 

Clint looked over at Natasha and Norah, “Nat, Norah. Let’s go.” He said as he made his way out of the church with Natasha following without much of an argument or grumbling for not being able to keep on fighting. 

When Norah didn’t move to head towards the life boats Steve looked at her with an arched brow, “Norah?” he questioned and then gestured towards the exit of the church. “Get to the lifeboats and get to safety.” He ordered.  
In response to that Norah shook her head, “No.” she said to him simply while both Wanda and Pietro watched this with rapt attention, never seeing someone say no to the Captain as of yet, both wondering what will happen. “You’ll need me here Steve, in case one of the people here needs immediate evac. I’m the only one who will be able to get them there in three seconds flat, so no Steve, I’m staying and I’m helping.” 

“Now look here Norah-“ Steve began to say in a mix between a commanding officer and a stern father but Norah interrupted him before he had a chance to finish his sentence. 

Norah looked at Steve, “Steve,” she said to him softly. “We don’t have time for this right now. Just go, I’ll be fine. Contact me if you find someone who needs help.” She told him with a ‘no arguing’ sort of expression on her face.   
Shaking his head, Steve knew when he was fighting an argument that he couldn’t win if he had all the time in the world. So instead Steve just turned tail and headed out into the city to search for any people that may have been left behind unintentionally and get them to the life boats as fast as he possibly could. 

Suddenly Pietro reappeared after one of his fights with the metal minions had taken him outside, looking at Wanda and Norah curiously he approached the both of them with curiosity in his eyes. 

“Get the people on the boats.” Wanda said as he looked between him and Norah. “Both of you.” She commanded.   
Pietro crossed his arms over his chest and looked at his sister as if she had just lost her mind, “I’m not going to leave you here.” He said to her as he shook his head at her. 

Wanda narrowed her eyes when he said that, “I can handle these.” She said and threw some of her red wisps of energy at one of the metal men that tried to come at her but she had destroyed him and pulled him a part before he had the chance to get near to her. 

When Wanda had done that Pietro conceded that she could handle them fine and that she was not the young girl that he used to protect and take care of when they were young, she no longer needed him to look out for her even if he desperately wanted to do so. Wanda was her own person; she was strong and fierce and was not afraid of being in danger to right the wrong that she and Pietro had made. 

“Come back for me when everyone else is off, not before.” Wanda said as Pietro approached her and she looked down into his face. “Do you understand?” she asked, or rather ordered of him.

Pietro was walking past his sister to do as she asked of him even if he really didn’t want to do it, “You know, I’m twelve minutes older than you.” He said to her with a playful grin on his face. 

Wanda gave a small smile when he said that and laughed a bit, “Go.” She ordered of him and as he sent one last look at Norah and his sister he took off. 

“Be safe Wanda,” Norah said as she looked at the female Sokovian. “I’ll be very annoyed if you end up getting yourself injured. Tears will more than likely be involved and I don’t like it when that happens.” She told her with feigned annoyance at the thought of crying. 

Wanda shook her head at her, “You as well Norah. Now go before I force you to.” She told her as she wiggled her fingers at her.

Norah Blinked herself out of the church to a few streets down and began to search around the area to find any people who may have been left behind on accident or because they were too afraid to move – she didn’t blame them, she was scared shitless too – and made sure that they made it to one of the lifeboats that were waiting on the floating city before she headed back out to the city once again to continue her search unwilling to leave one single person who still breathed in the city. After blinking to all sorts of random places in the city Norah had ended up finding at least three or four other people who hadn’t left their homes or had been too frightened to even think about leaving to find some safety, thankfully she had decided to join Steve in looking for people. 

Norah was once again near where the lifeboats were, intending on either getting on one or going to join Wanda until they were sure that the people of the city were on the lifeboats but before she had a chance to make that decision there was the sound of the quinjet shooting and quickly as she could Norah turned to see what it was shooting at and saw Clint with a small boy around the age of eight or so clutching onto him for dear life. Seeing a blur heading towards Clint and the boy intending to try and save them from the fire of the quinjet Norah closed her eyes for a moment and gathered all the strength that she possessed knowing without a doubt that she was about to do something incredibly stupid because of Clint, the young boy and Pietro who was heading towards where Clint was. 

Norah knew that if Pietro succeeded in saving Clint and the boy that he would end up getting himself shot up and killed and that was something she couldn’t let happen to either him or Clint; Clint had Laura and the kids to think about and Pietro had his sister Wanda to think about who Norah was somewhat sure would not be able to live through him dying. Norah, well Norah hasn’t seen her family in about eight years or so and so they wouldn’t know any different, but Tony and Pepper would be pissed if she got herself killed but she had to do this. She…..she couldn’t let Pietro die.

So taking a deep breath and looking at where the quinjet was heading, where Pietro was heading and where Clint and that kid were crouched at to protect themselves Norah made the decision and Blinked herself away from where she had been standing and reappeared just as Pietro had showed up and quickly grabbed him by the shoulder and then pressed her hand on Clint’s before Blinking them away but not before she heard the gunfire from the quinjet. Reappearing near the brick and glass building that everyone had been taking refuge at Norah gave a sigh of relief when she saw that both Pietro and Clint were alive as well as the child. 

“Tha-“ Norah began to say but the moment she spoke was when she realized that there was something definitely wrong with her, looking down at herself Norah’s eyes widened when she saw gunshot holes in her clothing and blood began to appear at a rapid pace and she looked up at Pietro and Clint who both were looking at her in shock and then before either of them knew what was happening Norah collapsed. 

Pietro putting his powers to use quickly caught Norah before she could injure herself more and laid her out on the hard ground and looked at her in panic, not believing that she had just sacrificed herself to save him and Clint who he had intended on saving. Quickly as he could he pressed his hands to the wound that was in one of her sides, desperately trying to stop the bleeding and to keep her from bleeding out, he wasn’t sure what to do right now or if she was in danger of bleeding out or what exactly. He’s never been in this sort of situation before and has never had training with anything medical related other than how to put a band aide on and wrap a minor would, nothing as serious as this. 

“Norah, hey, Norah. Please,” Pietro said as he grabbed one of her hands with his free one. “Look at me, yes? I need you to look at me.” He said to her as he watched as Norah looked around wildly with pain filled eyes, he turned from her for a moment and looked over at Clint who had wide eyes fixed on Norah. “Old man,” he said gaining his attention. “I….What must I do?” 

Before Clint could answer that question Norah started gasping, “It…it hurts. God, it hurts. Please.” Norah said as she tried to grab at Pietro’s shirt, clinging to it as if it was the only thing that was keeping her alive at the moment. 

Never before has Pietro been in a situation like this, never before has he ever felt so intensely for someone in such a short time like he does with Norah. Norah means a lot to him for some odd reason even though it has only been a week or so at the most that they have known each other and at least half of those days he had been with Ultron but even then she had piqued his interest and he couldn’t help but be drawn to her and now, now Norah was laying on the ground of Sokovia bleeding from multiple gunshot wounds because she wanted to save him, save Clint and save the little boy that Clint had been trying to save. 

“Norah, you must live for me, yes.” Pietro said from where he was kneeling on the ground next to Norah who was lying on the cement ground and bleeding from the gunshot wounds she had received because she decided to save Pietro, Clint and a young boy Clint was bringing to be transported from the floating city. “You cannot die.”

At that Norah gave a pained laugh, “I’ll…I’ll try my best.” She said as she hissed in pain, she could feel where all three of the bullets that hit her were in her body and god did they hurt like a bitch but it was worth it in the end; she saved Pietro, Clint and the kid. “I’m not really in the mood to die.” 

Clint looked at Norah and took a shaky breath; he went with Fury to find her in Romania and offer her help and training with her powers, he has known her for three years and he cared for her like family and seeing her laying on the ground and bleeding and from the looks and sound of it she could have been shot in the lung which was not a good thing at all. Norah didn’t deserve this, Tony and Pepper didn’t deserve to go through this. Norah was only twenty-two and had just finished University with a double degree. 

“Pietro.” Clint said softly as he looked at where Pietro was knelt down besides Norah, and then looked at Norah who was in serious trouble if her wounds didn’t get tended to soon. “We need to go, we need to get her to the Helicarrier.” 

“Go,” Pietro said and waved Clint to go ahead of him. “I will be moments.” He said as he turned back to Norah with a gentle smile. “Moj mali bik.” He said as he grabbed her hand which had blood on it from her pressing her hand on one of her wounds. “You will live for me, you made promise to me.” He said as he shifted and slid one arm under her knees and another around her back and stood up carefully and much slower than he would have preferred to go but he was not about to take any chances when it came to Norah’s health and safety. 

Norah slung an arm around Pietro’s neck, her fingers weakly touching his silver/blonde colored hair and gave a small grin. “I did, didn’t I?” she said as her pain filled brown eyes looked up into his intense blue colored ones. “I promised to be in the sort of situation where less clothing would be involved.”

“Yes, you promised that to me.” Pietro said as he steadied her in his arms. “I do not like promises being broken.” He said to her with a half-hearted grin, he hoped to all the gods that existed that Norah would live and would not die in the fifteen minutes that it would take to get to the Helicarrier. 

“I’ll do my best.” Norah said softly, blinking her eyes rapidly. “I’m so tired Pietro.” She said to him weakly.

Hearing that Pietro’s eyes widened, he may not know much when it came to the medical field but he did know enough that someone should not fall asleep after they were injured, especially with how seriously Norah seemed to be injured. Without a second thought in mind Pietro sped quickly to the ships that were transporting them to the Helicarrier and did all that he could to keep Norah’s eyes open; he would not lose Norah after only just finding her.


	16. Chapter 16

Pain. That’s all that Norah could feel at the moment, incredibly and immense pain that was soaring through the majority of her upper body. Norah was confused, she didn’t know what was going on, where she was, what was happening to her but all she did know was that she was in pain in very specific parts of her body and she couldn’t seem to comprehend or make sense of what was going on or what had happened to her. She had an incredible about of pain in her sides, her upper chest hurt like nothing she’s ever experienced before and her lungs, god, her lings felt as if they had been lit on fire, and she could feel something wet and sticky near her neck and shoulder and could feel it slowly making its way down her neck and upper chest.

There were voices surrounding her on all sides and even above her, she could hear them and she knew they were saying something but it sounded as if they were muddled, as if she had ear muffs around her ears softening or muting whatever everyone was saying around her. But even if it was hard to hear what they were saying Norah managed to make out a few words. Gunshot wound. Blood. They said something about 50…CC’s of something possibly; she wasn’t so sure on that one. Pierced lung. 

“She’s….blood…..hurry!” 

“Heart rate…..she’s….”

“Hellen Cho….no time….”

All of these voices were surrounding her and talking around her; she could feel their hands on her and feel them peeling away her clothing as quickly as possible. She could feel them turning her over to pull the clothes out from under her and she could feel them prodding at her wounds.

No matter how much Norah tried, no matter how desperately she tried to open her dark brown colored eyes even if it was just a sliver, just to see what was going on around her and no matter how hard she tried to open her mouth to say something. To beg for her father – Tony. To beg them to tell her what was going on and what had happened, she wasn’t able to do so. She was surrounded in darkness, and soon, the barely there consciousness that she was grasping so desperately escaped her and once again she passed out from the toll that the last week has taken out of her, from the fighting she has been doing, from the wounds she received from Ultron and from the blood loss she was suffering from at this very moment. All of that combined did not make things very easy or hopeful for the medical team that was now working on her in the medbay of the Hellicarrier, but by god they were going to try or Tony Stark himself and the Avengers would have their heads. 

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_.~_~_~_~_~_~_~.~_~_~_~_~._~_~_~_~_~_~_~

The moment he heard them yell Norah’s name over the ear comms and heard Clint and Pietro talking about her and the injuries she had Tony felt true, heart stopping panic settle deep into his bones. He heard the gunshots over the ear comms but Tony didn’t think anything of it, he didn’t think to worry about his teammates and he definitely didn’t think he needed to worry about Norah who could easily Blink herself out of there and to safety before the bullets even had a chance to hit her and injure her all that badly. But that wasn’t so, he was hoping that maybe Clint and the Sokovian boy were just overreacting or saying her name for some other reason but he was wrong in that aspect. When Clint had radioed him and told him what was going on, told him that Norah was rushed off to surgery…Tony knew it was serious and that it was bad if they rushed her off without even a second thought. Without a moment’s hesitation Tony flew off towards the Hellicarrier and let Rhodey finish a sweep of the city to make sure there weren’t any more of Ultron’s metal army left to deal with.

“Where is she?!” Tony yelled frantically as he entered the control room of the Hellicarrier where all of the ex-SHIELD agents and where Fury was at the moment, looking at the destruction of Ultron. “Where’s Norah!” he demanded of everyone and anyone as he stalked further and further in the room, the anger rolling off of him in waves. 

When Fury saw Stark land on the deck of the Hellicarrier he knew that within moments the arrogant genius would be inside and that he would be acting like the irrational person he was, he would be panicking, he would be beyond angry and he would put the blame on someone, anyone that he thought was deserving of the blame for what happened to Norah. 

“Stark.” Fury said as calmly as he could as he turned away from the screens that he was standing in front of and slowly made his way over to where Stark was standing who was still in his Iron Man suit, apparently not caring or not wanting to waste the time to take the suit off once he had heard about what happened to Norah.

When Fury had said his name Tony whipped his head towards him and glared, “Where’s Norah?” he demanded as he stalked towards him. “Where is she?” he asked as he grabbed the collar of the leather duster he was wearing and backed him up a few feet. 

Fury did all he could to stay calm when Tony did that, he knew that Tony was angry at what happened, angry at himself, guilt that this happened to Norah and was just in pain at the moment and wasn’t reacting like he would in most circumstances. Tony was angry and Fury was the first one he saw, but that doesn’t mean he’s happy about Tony trying to manhandle him. 

“You need to calm down Stark.” Fury said to him in an even but deadly tone of voice as he looked into the mask of the Iron Man suit, a brow raised at him. “You’re not going to do anyone any good if you’re acting like this, least of all your daughter.” He pointed out and tugged his coat out of Tony’s hands. 

Tony scoffed at that comment but stepped away from Fury, “Calm down, you want me to fucking calm down after finding out that my daughter was shot up by one of our own quinjets that Ultron decided to take control of? You want me to calm down, really?” he asked incredulously, an intense glare directed towards Fury.

“Stark, listen the-“ Fury began to say, to try and explain what was going on with Norah but as usual, Tony interrupted before he was able to. 

“No!” Tony yelled, he knew without a doubt that everyone that was in the control room was watching this exchange between himself and Fury at the moment but he didn’t really have enough energy to care, he didn’t care if he was acting unbelievably out of character, he didn’t care about anything except Norah. “You don’t tell me to listen. Not now, not in this situation you don’t.” he hissed at him, eyes narrowed. 

It was then that Steve had approached Tony and looked over at Fury and mouthed to him that he would handle Tony, so striding forwards towards the emotional father Steve put a calming hand on the shoulder of Tony’s suit and forced him to turn towards him a bit. “Tony, come on.” He said to him as he gestured towards one of the hallways, the exact one that would lead them to where the medbay was and the room where Norah was being operated on at that exact moment in time. “You don’t want to be arguing with Fury right now. You need to be there for Norah.” He said to him gently but forcefully. 

With erratic breaths escaping from him, Tony gave a stiff nod of agreement to what Steve had just said to him and then turned abruptly and stalked towards the medbay, towards Norah. He didn’t know what he was feeling at the moment, what he should be feeling or even what he should be thinking at this moment in time. This….this is a new sort of experience for him and he didn’t like it and didn’t want to go through something like this ever again. Norah….Norah wasn’t supposed to get hurt or possibly killed; they managed to kill Ultron and from the sounds of it they had all survived, that’s what Tony thought but that revelation had been short lived with news of Norah. It’s not fair that out of all of them, out of all of the Avengers who could have been injured or killed it was Norah who only decided to help them as a favor, because Tony asked her to help him and the others with this small mission in Sokovia that turned out to be much larger than they had imagined. 

Taking a deep breath, Tony rounded the corner to where he could hear quiet whispers and saw that Pietro and Clint were standing against the wall of the room where he assumed Norah was having surgery at the moment. Seeing the blood on a third of Pietro’s shirt made Tony’s blood go cold, there was much more blood on there than he liked and it made him want to burst into the room Norah was in and demand of the doctors to tell him what was going on, how bad it was but mostly, mostly Tony wanted to see with his own eyes the damage that Norah suffered from the bullet wounds. He wanted to see how bad it was but from the looks of Pietro’s shirt Tony wasn’t all that sure if that would be the greatest idea, it may just make his panic and worry that much more worse. 

“Tony-“ Clint began to say but Tony shook his head at him.

Tony looked away from both Clint and Pietro and walked a bit away before exiting his Iron Man suit and then leant against the wall near Clint and ran his shaky hands through his hair while he did his best to control his breathing, this felt a lot like those panic attacks he used to get after the battle of New York happened. Taking a deep breath Tony looked over at Clint and Pietro, he needed answers otherwise he may just have a breakdown right then and there and those two were the only ones who knew what had happened to Norah. Tony was still trying to wrap his head around the fact that Norah had gotten injured; Norah had powers and her power of Blinking should have allowed her to get out of the gunfire before it reached her and there was no way that she didn’t hear or see that coming so he really wanted to know why she didn’t, what happened to make her not move out of the way of the gunfire from Ultron.

“What happened?” Tony questioned through clenched teeth doing his best to not look at the blood that was on Pietro’s shirt, Norah’s blood. “How…how did this happen?”

It was Pietro who answered, “Ultron he was in one of those quinjets, he was heading towards him,” Pietro said with an unreadable face and gestured towards Clint. “And a child he was protecting, I was running to save them. Norah appeared right as I did; she grabbed us by shoulder and…..Blinked, as you say, us away. We did not know she was injured until we saw blood and when she collapsed.” He ended quietly, trying to not look at the blood that was on his shirt. 

For a moment there was nothing but silence between Tony, Clint and Pietro as Tony tried to comprehend what he was just told and as he tried to understand and envision what exactly had happened to Norah that resulted in her being shot and having to go through surgery. 

“You,” Tony said as he looked up and at Pietro with narrowed eyes “She was saving you. She’s like this because of you! You did this you stupid, stupid Sokovian. You made this happen! She’s dying because of you!” Tony accused irrationally, he was way beyond angry at this point in time and was heading straight for downright furious.

“No. No I did not.” Pietro said firmly to Tony Stark who was reacting like this because he thought of Norah as a daughter. “I did not cause this to happen. Ultron did this, not me.” He said as he gestured towards the room that Norah was in at the moment. 

At that Tony glared heatedly at Pietro, the young man who had been on Ultron’s side not but days ago and now seems to have a thing for his daughter, his daughter who at this very moment could be dying. “No, she’s in there because she was trying to save you of all people who didn’t deserve to be saved. I don’t care if you two had a thing going on or whatever, I don’t care if she likes you for some stupid, idiotic reason you did not deserve to be saved. You should be the one who’s in there,” Tony yelled at him as he stalked closer and closer to Pietro and gestured angrily to the door where Norah and the doctors were. “Not her. Never her.” He whispered and did his best to keep the tears that were welling up in his eye from falling, he hasn’t cried for another person since his mother and father had died and then it had mostly been for his mother but now here he was crying because Norah could possibly be dying. 

“Stark I-“ Pietro began to say but Tony didn’t allow him to talk all that much. 

Tony stepped closer and pushed Pietro with all his might against the wall closest to the two of them which surprised Pietro, his mind wasn’t all there with what was going on and more so thinking about Norah who was in surgery rather than Tony Stark who seemed to blame him for what happened to his daughter. Tony moved to push Pietro once again but before he had the chance to do so Wanda’s signature red energy pushed him forcefully against the wall and held him there. 

Wanda came down the hallway with a purpose and looked at Tony with a blazing fire in her eyes, “Do not touch him!” she growled at him as she released him from her hold and then looked to her brother and was about to go towards him but stopped when she saw the blood that his shirt was covered in and wondered how he was still standing. “You are injured, you ne-“ she started to say but was stopped by Pietro.

“It is not mine.” Pietro said to her gently as he laid a hand against her cheek and smoothed back her hair in a brotherly fashion. “I am fine, no harm.” 

Hearing that Wanda pulled away from her brother with a look of confusion on her face and then turned to look at everyone that was gathered in the hallway at the moment; Tony Stark, Clint, Steve and with her came Vision, Thor and Natasha and the only one who was missing other than Banner was Norah. 

“Whose blood is it Pietro?” Wanda asked evenly as she looked at her brother searching, looking for any sign in his eyes that he was not about to say the name that she thought he was going to. 

He gave a tight smile when she said that, “It is Norah’s. She…it is not good; she took many bullets into body. They’re working, fixing her.” He said to her and tried to give her a confident smile that showed he wasn’t worried but it was a half assed attempt at best that did nothing to ease the worry that Wanda now felt. 

“Cho.” Tony said suddenly, as if he just remembered what it was that the woman could do. “We need to call Cho, get her here as fast as possible and have her help Norah.” 

At that Steve shook his head, “We called her already but it’ll be hours before she can even think about getting here Tony, Norah needs to be worked on now or else she won’t survive her injuries.” He explained to the irrational man. “Cho said she’d meet us at Stark Tower and do whatever it is that she can after they’re done stabilizing her,” he said and gestured towards the door. “And fixing her the best of their ability. But Tony, you need to realize how bad her injuries are, how –“ Steve began to say to Tony. 

At that Tony shook his head and interrupted Steve before he had a chance to finish that sentence, “No. No, we’re not going there capsicle, we’re not talking about that or even hinting about that being a possibility. Norah will make it. There’s no other choice in the matter.” He said stubbornly as he crossed his arms over his chest and looked up at Steve defiantly. 

Thor came up to Tony and gently as a Norse God such as himself could do – which wasn’t all that much – he grasped Tony by the shoulder and squeezed to show him that he was there for him, supporting him and Norah. “Lady Norah is fierce and stubborn, she is a great fighter on the battlefield and she will be a great fighting while healing as well. She will make it, I have no doubt.” 

Tony gave a quick nod before he succumbed to his anger and frustration and hit the wall with one of his clenched fists, he hit the wall hard enough that he could feel the pain that he just forced on himself but not enough that he injured the bones in his hand. This could not be happening right now, not to Norah who did not deserve to have this happen. This was his fault, if he hadn’t of tried to make Ultron happen then they never would have had to go through this shit, they never would have had to fight and Norah wouldn’t have ended up so severely injured like she was at the moment. 

“I…I have phone calls that I need to make.” Tony forced out before he stalked away from the room Norah was being operated on and down the hallway to somewhere that he would be able to be alone for a bit. 

When Tony had left everyone just stood there in silence and thinking about Norah who was on the opposite side of that door being worked on diligently by the doctors that Fury had scrounged up that used to work for SHIELD; each one of the Avengers, as well as Pietro and Wanda were hoping against all they had that Norah lived, that she survived what happened to her. 

“That went better than expected.” Clint finally said to break the tense silence that had settled once Tony had left the group. 

At that Steve turned to look at him with discouraging eyes for the comment he just made, “And how did you expect it to go?” he questioned the archer/assassin. 

It was Natasha who answered, who was trying to ignore the fact that she felt heartbreak over the fact that Bruce had left in the quinjet to who knows where. “I thought he would have lashed out more, been violent.” She admitted as she looked over at Steve and gave a shrug of the shoulders. “This is Tony and you know how he is when it comes to Norah. He will kill everything and anything that gets in his way if it means protecting her.” She explained.

“She is a fighter; I could see that from the moment I met her.” Vision said as he walked forward and pressed a hand against the door where Norah was. “She will survive but it will take time and strong will.” 

After that everyone sort of kept quiet and kept to themselves thinking about everything that had happened that day and that week; first they found Strucker’s lab and managed to recapture Loki’s scepter, they found out about Pietro and Wanda, Tony and Bruce decided to make Ultron happen which in retrospect ended up being a completely horrible idea, they went to South Africa which kind of knocked the team down for a bit, the headed to Seoul and ended up having both Pietro and Wanda join the Avengers side and then Vision was created, and lastly they headed back to Sokovia and finished Ultron and his metal army off once and for all. It’s been a long week or so, however long it’s been and they were all tired, exhausted and ready to have a decent night’s sleep.

“Pietro.” Wanda said quietly from where she was sitting beside her twin brother on the ground of the medbay. “All will be fine.” She told him, unsure if the statement she just said was true or not. 

When she said that Pietro bent his knees a bit and laid his arms over them so his hands dangled in front of him and laid his head back against the wall, he knew he hasn’t known Norah for all that long and has been on the same team as her for even less time but he cared for Norah a lot more than he should have in such a short period. She is like no girl…woman, that he has ever met or even been with. He has been with women before, some he dated and some others he only had for one night but Norah was the light that illuminated everything, that set fire to him and made him mad for her. 

“Will she?” Pietro asked in a moment of doubt and pessimism. “There was blood, so much blood Wanda. She had so much blood all over, I….I panic and couldn’t think what to do, how supposed to help her.” He told her and grasped at his silver/blonde colored hair helplessly, wishing that there was something he could do to help Norah rather than having to sit out here and wait for her doctors to come out.

Hearing that Wanda leant her head on Pietro’s shoulder as a way to comfort him, “You must trust, Pietro. Trust doctors will do what they can. They are only ones that can save Norah, will bring her through and make sure she survives.” She said to him comfortingly, worrying about the girl that seemed to have grown on her in only a couple days and hoped to god that she lived. “You and I saw her, saw the fire in her eyes, saw how determined, saw how much fight she had in her. She is like bull Pietro. She will not give in easily. Trust that.” She told him as she moved a bit and kissed his cheek before laying her head back against his shoulder once again. 

And now they wait. 

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~ Tony ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

There was not one single doubt in Tony’s mind that Pepper was going to go on a rampage when she saw him, that she was going to go straight to him and beat the ever living shit out of him for what he did and for what he let happen to Norah and for dragging Norah into this without a second thought. Pepper loved Norah just as much as he did, she was protective of her and hated it, absolutely hated it when they asked her to go with them on missions when Pepper thought that they shouldn’t even bother. She wanted Norah to have a normal life since she hadn’t really had much of once since she was fifteen years old and was trying everything in her power to make sure Norah experienced as normal things as she possibly could. 

“Tony, hey.” Pepper’s voice came over the phone. “Look, I don’t have much time to talk I have a meeting in-“   
Tony cut her off, “Pep, something happened.” He said to her solemnly, more than willing to take the ire that would soon be focused on him.

Hearing Tony say that, Pepper’s end of the phone quieted for a moment. “Are you okay?” she questioned. “Is Norah okay?” she asked. 

“I’m fine, I did…Pepper I did something stupid when we were able to get Loki’s scepter.” Tony admitted to her as he finally let some tears form in his eyes and his voice started to break. “I was a fucking idiot, I just had to do something stupid, I had to since I finally had my hands on the scepter and had a small chance of making the program work and it…bad things happened because of it.” He said and Pepper tried to break into his rant but he didn’t let her. “I tried to create Ultron.” He finally admitted.

For a few moments there was nothing but breathing on the other line of the phone before Pepper spoke in a firm tone of voice. “Tony, you said you wouldn’t mess with that. You told me that it wasn’t possible to happen, that technology wasn’t developed far enough to try and do what you wanted with that.” She told him, already dreading what else he might have to say to her about this. 

Tony ran his one free hand through his hair as he kept the phone to his ear, “I know, I know Pepper and I was an idiot and didn’t think of any of the consequences and, things didn’t go as planned Pep. Ultron…..he wanted to kill the Avengers and the human race. He didn’t want to protect the humans like I programmed him but to kill each and every single one of us.” 

“Tony.” Pepper said in a hard tone of voice.

“It went bad real fast Pepper,” Tony said to her as he leaned his forehead against the cool wall of the Hellicarrier. “Norah, I asked Norah to help. And she was fine, she did fine until we had the final battle with Ultron.” He said and could barely hear Pepper breathing on the other side of the phone. “She was shot Pepper, I….I don’t know how many times but she was shot and it was bad. I haven’t heard anything but she’s in surgery right now.”  
Hearing that Pepper inhaled sharply, “Anthony.” Pepper said in a deadly tone of voice at what Tony had just told her. 

“I know Pepper, I…jesus I fucked up so bad and now Norah is in surgery and I don’t know if she is going to live or not and there’s this kid, this Sokovian kid who was with Ultron at first but him and his twin sister are now with us and now him and Norah had some sort of thing going on. I don’t fucking understand it or even know how that even started in the week or so that they’ve known each other but it did. And,” Tony started choking up a bit and he was more than certain that Pepper could hear how hard he was taking this. “I don’t know what to do Pepper. I hate myself right now; I want to trade my life for Norah’s. Just, please, meet us at the tower.” He begged pathetically to her. 

For a few tense seconds Pepper didn’t say anything, but there was finally a heavy sigh. “Tony, just. I’ll be back at the tower as soon as I can, I’ll leave now. Just, don’t do anything else that will get people killed.” She hissed at him, yep he was in some deep shit with her. “I can’t believe you. I’ll see you soon Tony.” And with that said she hung up.

For a moment, a small moment Tony thought about getting the information he needed to call Norah’s birth family to tell them that she was injured seriously and that they weren’t sure if she would live or not but had decided against it. He wanted to wait a bit and see if Norah survived this, to see if she lived past this surgery and would be able to make it to Stark Tower. Then, then if she lived through that he would call her family and let them know that she was injured and that they needed to come to New York, on his dime of course. 

But for now he would leave things alone and go back to where Norah was being operated on and hope for the best. Hope that she lived to open her eyes once more, that she lived to sing and dance again, that she lived to yell at him in foreign languages when he pissed her off and he hoped that she lived so that he could see her smile again.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> translation:  
> Moj mali bik = my little bull

Hours went by as they all sat there along the hallway in the medbay, each and every single one of them hoping and praying to whatever god and/or gods that they believed in that Norah would live, that Norah would survive what happened to her and be the fighter that the majority of the Avengers knew her to be. It was getting close to three and a half hours and still there was no sign or word from the doctors that were operating on Norah on what was going on, how the surgery was going and just….anything really, at that point in time they would take any news. Any news is better than no news at all. It killed Tony that he couldn’t know what was going on, it took all of his damn will power to keep himself from bursting into that operating room and demanding to know what was going on with Norah and to know every single thing that they were doing to her but his common sense made him see reason and so, he didn’t burst into the operating room.

Even Fury had managed to come by to see how things were going with Norah and her operation, and wanted to know if the doctors had given them any news on how she was doing – Norah may be a smart ass like Tony was but he still liked the girl for some odd reason – every time Fury asked that they would just silently shake their heads at him and then turn back to staring at the ground or the door silently. When that happened Fury would just give a nod and then go back to wherever it was that he had been before and then would come check on them once again and would repeat this cycle in about thirty to forty-five minute intervals but each time he would receive the same answer. 

Finally, finally after sitting on the ground for so long that all of their extremities seemed to have gone completely numb did the door to Norah’s room finally open up to reveal three doctors who were in bloodied scrubs – Norah’s blood. The moment everyone saw the three doctors, one a strawberry blonde female who looked to be in her mid-twenties, another a young blonde haired man who looked too young to be doing surgery and the last an older man with bright red hair that was beginning to grey, they all stood up and waited with baited breath to hear what the doctors had to say about Norah and the surgery that she had just undergone. They waited to hear that she would be okay, that she would live through the injuries she sustained from bullets. 

“Well?” Tony asked impatiently as he pushed himself away from the wall that he was leaning up against and walked up to the three doctors. “How is she? Is….is she okay? Is she alive?” he demanded, an almost crazed look in his eyes at the thought of Norah not making it out of surgery alive, something he would not be able to live with himself if it happened. 

The young blonde haired man looked at Tony Stark and then to the rest of the Avengers that were looking at them expectantly and gulped nervously; he may have worked for SHIELD before everything went to hell in DC but he’s never had the honor nor the chance to meet any of the Avengers before and the fact that he had been working on Iron Man’s daughter was sort of freaking him out and making his palms sweat. He was acting like a starstruck teenager at the moment. 

Before the young male doctor had a chance to try and form a sentence to tell the Avengers it was the female doctor who took matters into her own hands, “She is alive.” She said to them and smiled when she heard the cheers and remarks of thanks that they gave at that bit of news. “Your daughter miraculously made it through surgery Mr. Stark.” She said as she looked at the supposed arrogant, self-centered and egotistical man that looked vastly different than she had expected – he looked like a worried parent. 

The older doctor nodded his head in agreement, “Yes, Norah is lucky to have had made it out of surgery and to have survived through surgery with how bad her bullet wounds had been and the places that she had been shot.” He explained to them with a serious look on his face over what could have happened if they had not gotten Norah to the medbay fast enough, she could have either died from bleeding out or from the damage that the bullets had caused to her internally. “It’s a good thing she’s a fighter.” 

Hearing that Tony couldn’t help but give a small proud smile, though he didn’t raise Norah he did think that being around her and having her live with him for the last three years and seeing her as a daughter helped Norah become the person she was now, helped her become even more fierce, stubborn, determined and helped her become the fighter she was which ensured that she lived through the surgery that she just went through.   
Clint looked at the doctor, “What were the damages exactly?” he asked curiously, he’s been shot numerous times while being out in the field before and wanted to know the exact damage that Norah had faced when she had decided to save him and Pietro from Ultron. 

It was the older doctor who answered, “The gunshot wounds were the obvious signs of damage, she had five gunshot wounds on her person. There was one on her shoulder up near her neck, one entered her chest and went directly through her lung and exited out the back.” He said in a serious tone of voice and could hear Tony Stark suck in a breath sharply at that news. “There was another one on her upper thigh that had barely missed the bone and then two more near her side but one of the bullets had managed to nick some of the organs inside of her abdomen. While fixing those up we had nearly lost her but we managed to get her back, the important thing is that she lived.”

“Thank fucking god,” Tony said with an audible sound of relief and gave a genuinely happy smile at the fact that Norah was all right, that she was going to live through this ordeal. 

Wanda smiled brightly at what the doctors told them and grasped her brother’s hands in her own and squeezed them, “See brother,” Wanda said quietly so to not interrupt the conversation that Tony and the doctors were having at the moment. “I told you she live through and she did.” 

Pietro was about to respond to his sister’s boastful comment but before he had a chance to the female doctor began to talk once again, “She’s recovering now but we’ll need to keep a close eye on her.” She said as she looked at each and every single one of the people that were standing in the hall to make sure they knew how important that part of her recovery was. “As with any sort of wound there is a chance of an infection, that she could reopen her wounds that we stitched up if she moved suddenly or tries to move herself without anyone’s help. It’s the wound she received in her lung that I’m concerned about; I want that wound to be healed up a bit before she even thinks about moving around even an inch. I’d recommend putting her into a medical induced a coma so that we can give that wound some time to heal up and so that it doesn’t hurt her too incredibly bad to breathe when she does wake up.” 

Natasha crossed her arms and looked at the doctor with a cocked brow, “Then why didn’t you do it already?” she questioned as she looked at the strawberry blonde with unwavering eyes. “We want her better and if that means putting her into an induced a come then so be it.” She said with a pointed look and wondered where exactly Fury had scrounged up these guys. 

“Umm, well,” the nervous young male doctor said as he looked nervously at Natasha before looking away from her, not being able to take her intense icy gaze. “We wanted to make sure it was all right with you guys first. You’re her family after all.” He pointed out to them. 

“Thank you.” Tony said sounding thankful and relived as he clasped the doctors on their shoulders, his eyes welling up with tears but he quickly blinked those away before anyone could see them, he’s cried once already today he didn’t need to do it again. “Just, thank you.” He whispered.

Thor suddenly smiled widely, “Yes!” he said loudly making the nervous doctor jump a mile in the air. “You did your people proud! May Odin look over your family.” He said as if that was a great gift to have. 

“Thank you Doctors.” Steve said to them with a nod of acknowledgement. 

“Can I see her?” Tony asked, he needed to see Norah with his own two eyes to know for certain that she was okay and was alive. 

The older doctor gave him a soft smile, “You can but you need to wait a bit longer, we need to clean her up a bit and put a gown on her. Once we do that you can see her but I only request that no more than two or three people go in to see her at one time.” He said to them with a look, daring them to disobey him. “I’ll induce her into a medical a coma as well so that she can heal properly and then you can see her.” 

While the doctors were doing just that Tony was pacing back and forth along the hallway impatiently, he hated the fact that he had to wait just that much longer until he could see Norah and make sure that she was okay with his own eyes. He didn’t care if she was covered in blood and bandages as long as he got to see her again, as long as he could hold her hand and smooth back her hair and talk to her unconscious body and tell her how sorry he was that all of this happened. He wanted to be able to feel the heat from her skin so that he would know without a doubt that she was alive. But he knew the others as well as the doctors wouldn’t let him do that, so instead he paced and waited. 

Twenty minutes passed by when the doctors came back out of Norah’s room and told Tony that it was okay to go in and see her, not wasting any time Tony rushed inside and say by his daughter’s side and pulled her hand into his and ignored the IV’s that were hooked up to her and ignored the bruising that was obviously from the fight against Ultron.

“Hey Norah,” Tony uttered softly as he walked further into the room and looked at his daughter’s exhausted, sleeping body and then slowly reached out and grabbed her hand, squeezing it to let her know that he was there with her at the moment even if she didn’t know it. “Doc said that you’re a fighter, said they almost lost you during the surgery but you somehow fought your way through. You fought to live.” He said to her with a half-smile on his face at the fact that the girl who he claimed as daughter was stubborn while conscious and unconscious. “You know, I didn’t really care about anyone but myself for so long especially after my parents had died. I wasn’t the nicest nor the greatest of people around; I thought I was better than everyone and yeah me being a genius made me smarter than most of everyone but I wasn’t better, I dealt in weapons with people and I didn’t really care who as long as I got a good sum of money at the end of the day, I used women like some people use ranch dressing, I didn’t care about anyone’s feelings and now I’m not that person anymore. Sure I still have the same personality for the most part and still tell jokes and am sarcastic but I’m not nearly as self-centered or cold hearted as I once had been.” He said and shook his head in disappointment at the person he used to be, what he had allowed himself to become. 

Tony knew that he should have come out better, that he shouldn’t have let him become the person he was in his younger years and up until he had gone missing in the Middle-East but he had. It wasn’t completely Tony’s fault or the fact that he was a billionaire or whatever, it was partly the fault of how he had grown up. Tony barely had a chance to get to know his father, Howard Stark was a man who didn’t have time to waste spending it with his son who only had wanted to spend time with him doing whatever it was that he wanted, he only wanted to feel as if his father loved him and wanted to feel as if he made his father proud. Tony’s father was the one and only person who he had ever looked up to as a hero. Life wasn’t fair to Tony when it came to his childhood, it was one of the things him and Norah had bonded over. 

“You know I love you Blinker,” Tony said as he situated himself on the chair that was near Norah’s bed with her hands still clasped within his larger and rougher hands. “I’m just fucking glad you’re alive and on the way to healing up. I…I just, do you know how incredibly boring life would be without you, Pepper barely puts up with my jokes and humor, and Bruce isn’t always around to understand my jokes and sarcasm and all he ever does is just shake his head at me. You’ll join in and banter with me, you…Norah, you keep me on my toes and give as good as you get and that’s one of the many things I love about you. I even love it when you Blink into the lab out of nowhere and scare the ever living shit out of me.” He said and remembered that when Norah first moved in and had Blinked herself to his labs that he had been so startled sometimes that he would end up dropping whatever was in his hands, breaking some of his inventions that way too but nowadays he barely reacts from her appearing out of thin air. 

“You do know that you’re an official bad ass, right?” Tony questioned even though he knew Norah wasn’t going to respond but it made him feel better to pretend she was going to answer rather than not. “You got shot five times or something like that; I think that means we gotta have to have a party for this milestone on your life. I think plenty of alcohol, lots of people and loud music and food will be perfect to celebrate your bad ass status.” He said with a hint of a smile on his face. “You know, if you’re a good girl I’ll even crown you resident bad ass. Tiara and all. I’ll try to make sure Thor doesn’t get too jealous of the Tiara, no promises though.” He joked and tried to laugh at it but wasn’t able to really put much heart into it, how could he with Norah laying there injured and unconscious because of Ultron. 

Letting go of Norah’s hand Tony bowed his head over his lap and closed his eyes for a moment before he ran his hands through his dark hair with a heavy sigh, “Called Pepper. She…well, she was furious with me to say the least but I really don’t blame her. I deserve her anger. No doubt about that.” He said hollowly as he turned his eyes back onto Norah’s unconscious form. “I’m pretty sure we won’t be sharing a bed for a long while after this and I’m definitely going to be going through sex withdrawal, depending on how sadistic she is feeling. I guess me and the expensive couches will be getting to know each other better.” He said with a wry smile. “Pepper will be at the tower when we get there in a few hours, you know the moment she sees you that she’s going to overreact and hover around you like a mother hen until you can’t take it anymore but you gotta let her do it, it’s in her nature so try to not get too angry and frustrated with her if you can Norah. She worries. It’s what makes her Pepper.” He said with a wistful smile as he thought about his girlfriend for a moment and the life they had together and about Norah who made their life just that much more….more. “Hey Blinker, I….I’m gonna go now, okay. There’s other people here who wanna see you and talk to you. I won’t be far though, okay. Never forget that. I love you.” He said and then stood up and quickly leant over her prone form and pressed a kiss to her sweaty forehead and quickly left the room before he got anymore sentimental and emotional than he already was and started to cry again which was something he refused to do in front of his team members, he needed to be strong for Norah.

Once Tony had left only a minute passed by before the door to Norah’s temporary room opened once again to reveal Clint and Natasha this time, both took in the scene that was in front of them with unblinking eyes and then walked further into the room before shutting the door behind them so that they could have privacy to talk to Norah and to sit with her for a few minutes.

Natasha taking charge of the situation gracefully made her way over to Norah and plopped herself down in the chair which she somehow made look as elegant as ever. “You know I hate hospitals Norah and being in medical rooms like this, brings back bad memories.” Natasha said as she crossed her arms over her chest as she sent the younger girl an annoyed look for having to be there at the moment, though it was obvious to those who knew the redheaded assassin that she deeply cared about what had happened to Norah and that this was just her way of showing that she cared. “Clint and I wasted almost three years training you on how to handle weapons, how to fight, how to block and how to get out of almost any situation that you may find yourself in and this is how you repay us? By getting shot five times.” She said and shook her head unbelievably. “I thought getting drugged was a possibility for you and then being kidnapped once you were out, maybe even running into some other Mutant’s who’d use their powers against you but I never thought this,” she said as she gestured towards Norah’s bandaged body that was hooked up to a heart monitor and an IV at the moment. “Was a possibility. You were stupid and made a mistake Norah and once you wake up and are healed enough I am going to beat your ass.” She said and then glanced quickly over at Clint before standing suddenly and walking out of the room.

Clint looked towards the door that Natasha just exited and then back at Norah before he shook his head at his close friend, “You know how Natasha is.” He said as he took the vacated seat. “She doesn’t like to show that she cares, it’s not in her blood. She’s too Russian for that.” He said and gave a forced laugh and patted Norah’s hand as gently as he could so to not jostle her too much and cause her more harm them she was already in. “I’m bad at this part Norah. I mean I’ve seen Natasha laid up from a mission before, she’s seen me laid up before and I even saw Steve when he got injured badly from his friend Bucky but I don’t know, this feels different somehow. I feel like we should have tried protecting you more even though I know you hate it when we do that and tell us that you are an adult and don’t need to be protected as if you were made of glass or some shit like that.” He said and then leaned back into the chair uncertain what else he should say to her. “Try and get better before I kill your speedster, he’s driving everyone up the wall by his fast paced…pacing.” He told her before he decided that it was time to leave.

Not but a few moments passed before Thor and Steve walked into the room to visit Norah as well; though none of the Avengers were related to one and another by blood and had no reason to stay in contact with one and another, hang out with one and another or anything alone those lines when they weren’t doing Avenger business they decided to do so – they were a family. They were brothers, sisters, and friends and in Norah and Tony’s situation they were like a father and daughter to one and another. Even if they didn’t have the stereotypical sort of family that most normal people had, they were a family nonetheless and nothing would be able to change that fact. 

“Lady Eleanorah!” Thor boomed loudly, having no sense of what the proper tone of voice for inside versus outside was, and headed straight for Norah’s hospital bed. “You fought valiantly against Ultron and his minions. You have done your ancestors proud and now the scars that you will carry from this day forward will tell tales that your future children will hear for years to come.” He said to Norah’s unconscious body with a wide grin, as if it he had bestowed her a great favor. 

“Thor-“ Steve said, trying to interrupt and tell him that Norah won’t be able to hear anything that he was telling her but all Thor did was ignore him so rather than trying to get through to the Norse God, Steve just left him alone and let him talk to Norah. 

Thor lightly tapped Norah on the arm that was uninjured, it was more than likely supposed to show the care he felt towards her and how proud he was of her and the fight she gave but all it did was end up looking like an awkward gesture a teenager would use on his first crush. “I am proud to have fought alongside you Norah,” Thor began with a humbled tone of voice that sounded odd coming from him. “I can only wait until the times comes when we must fight alongside one and another again. Asgard will know of your Bravery, of the girl with wild yellow hair who fought as well as any warrior within my father’s army. As well as one of the Warrior’s Three.” He boasted to her. “I will not rest until everyone in the nine realms know of you, of the Avengers.” He said with a decisive nod and then turned, cape and all, and left the room. 

At those words Steve couldn’t help but give a small chuckle, Thor was quite the character that was for sure. “Hey Norah,” Steve said awkwardly as he stood above her. “You know pretty dame’s like you ain’t supposed to be in places like this, you’re supposed to be out in the world enjoying your life. Not getting shot at.” He said to her and shook his head, wishing that he could have said or done something different that would have convinced Norah that going along with them was a bad idea….but Norah was Norah and she was stubborn as a bull. “We sure got you into a pickle didn’t we? The doctors said that you were shot five times and that we nearly lost you during the surgery but you pulled through, that stubbornness of yours came in handy then, didn’t it?” he said with a small laugh but shook his head at the fact that he could laugh when Norah was laid up and unconscious. “I wish it was me who had been injured Norah, you don’t deserve to be in this-“ he said and gestured towards her injured body that was hooked up to a couple machines. “You don’t deserve to be in the hospital and be so severely injured. You shouldn’t have come with us, we’re the Avengers and even though you are willing to come with us and help you’re technically not an Avenger and I’m sorry I had Tony drag you into this. I’m sorry. I’ll make this up to you somehow.” Steve ended and then looked at her with sorrow and quickly made an exit from the room. 

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~ Pietro ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

One thing Pietro has grown to hate ever since he had gained the power of super speed was waiting; he could get anywhere he wanted in a manner of seconds (within reason of course) but now he had to wait like a ‘normal’ person and wait to see Norah who was maybe ten or so feet from where he was pacing at the moment – super fast pacing at that. He knew that technically he had no right to go in there first, Tony Stark was Norah’s father even if it wasn’t by blood and the other Avengers saw her as family and so Pietro, Wanda and Vision were the ones who would get to see her last and it killed Pietro that he had to wait. He needed, absolutely needed to see Norah as soon as possible so that he could see with his won two eyes that she still lived, that she had made it through surgery and that she had survived the gunshot wounds she had suffered. 

There had been at least three times that Pietro had nearly said fuck it and just ran in there not caring who it was that was in there but both Wanda and vision had convinced him to do otherwise, technically speaking Pietro wasn’t anything to Norah at the moment other than someone she had an interest in. He wasn’t her boyfriend, her lover or her anything at the moment and so, he had no right to barge in there while her family was visiting her, who were also probably trying to reassure themselves that she still lived as well. 

“Pietro,” Wanda hissed at him under her breath as she stared at her brother who kept on pacing back and forth along the hallway, annoying the other Avengers to the point of where they wanted to attack him almost or chain him up. “Stop pacing. You are making my mind dizzy.” She said as she touched her head briefly as she looked up at her brother from where she sat on the ground. “Calm yourself, all will be fine in moments, just see.” She told him.

Pietro turned to his sister and opened his mouth to say something but before he had the chance to do so the door to Norah’s room opened and out walked Steve who had a downcast expression on his face which only resulted to worry Pietro more, Captain America was supposed to be the sort of person who oozed confidence, determination and hope – at least that is what the comics made it look like – he was not supposed to look like this, like a puppy that got kicked. 

“You can-“ Steve began to say as he looked at Pietro and Wanda but before he could finish his sentence Pietro had picked Wanda up and had rushed the two of them into the room. 

The moment the two siblings entered the room Pietro set Wanda down gently before he turned away from her and headed towards the hospital bed which held Norah’s unconscious form. When Pietro took a good look at Norah and the machine’s that surrounded her he couldn’t help but stand stock still for a moment and take a painful gulp; she had a heart monitor hooked up to her, there was another machine as well which he didn’t understand, she was wearing the stereotypical hospital gown but that didn’t hide the bandages that he could make out the shape of and on top of all of that there was a bit of bruising on her arms and her face. All in all she looked like she took a good beating. 

“Go on Pietro.” Wanda urged as she walked slowly towards Norah and saw the same thing Pietro saw – her newly made friend injured, unconscious and looking like she took a beating.

Taking a deep breath Pietro surged forward and in the blink of an eye he was sitting in the chair beside Norah’s bed and was holding Norah’s smaller hand within his larger and calloused hands, “Moj mali bik, why? Why must you do this to me, hmm? You put fear into me.” He said and pressed her limp fingers to his cheek so that he could feel the small bit of warmth that they were giving off. “You do stupid thing,” he scolded as he reached forward and slowly pushed her wild curly blonde hair back off of her face and caressed her cheek in a caring fashion. “You should have not tried to save us, to save me. I would have been fine.” He said as he shook his head.  
Pietro hated to see Norah like this, to see her so….so frail, so fragile and weak. From the bit that he knew about Norah she was strong, determined, stubborn as a bull – like her nickname that he gave her – fierce and seemed to like a challenge. Seeing her like this, seeing her unconscious and being unable to see the playful glint in her dark brown colored eyes pained him, he hated that he couldn’t see that side of her, bring it out of her and banter with her. This is not how he wanted to celebrate defeating Ultron. Nowhere close. 

“She is fine Pietro,” Wanda said as she reached the hospital bed that Norah was in and gently patted Norah’s lower leg supportively, silently telling the silly American girl that she was there for her, that she cared and wanted to see her again when she woke up. “I tell you she live and will be fine.” She told him with a pointed look.

At that Pietro looked up at his sister with a glare and then gestured angrily towards Norah with his head, “This not fine, this is not fine Wanda. This…no…she…injured.” Pietro said brokenly, trying to find the words in English of what he was trying to convey but he was too emotional and angry to do it. “She was badly injured Wanda, this is not what fine is. This is bad injury. She could have died from this and it would be my fault, and the archer’s who was trying to save child.” He spoke finally, trying to calm himself down enough to speak clearly. 

“It is no one’s fault Pietro,” Wanda spoke as she soothingly squeezed her brother’s one free hand which was tapping wildly against his knee. “This was accident, bad, bad accident. But was accident nonetheless. You were trying to save people, trying to save Clint and the boy – you were trying to be Avenger. Never regret that.” She told him seriously, a look in her eye that told him he best not try and refute what she just said. 

Though Pietro knew that his sister was right in what she was saying he was still too angry with himself to accept it, to accept that it was nothing but an accident that happened. 

Sighing Pietro ran his hands through his hair and then gazed at Norah and frowned at the bruised that covered a bit of her temple and forehead, something had either hit her or thrown her hard into something. “Stupid American.” He teased in a loving fashion as he gently caressed the side of Norah’s cheek with his fingers and relished in the fact that the warmth of her body could be felt, he could tell that she lived and breathed. “I would have been fine if you just give time for me to run, you too impatient.” He said to her as he leaned closer and pressed a kiss to her bruised temple and breathed her familiar scent in, a scent that he has since committed to memory since they had been ‘making out’ as it were. 

When Wanda had first found out about Norah, about Pietro’s interest and curiosity about her, she had decided then and there that she would not want any part with the girl who had powers like them. She didn’t want to like Norah, she didn’t want to encourage Pietro’s interest in her or anything of the sort, she wanted to be far away from Norah as she could get but things did not work that way. It was especially hard after Wanda had seen into Norah’s mind…..after she saw what had happened to her in St. Louis, she felt for the girl and felt bad for the life that she had been forced to live because of being a Mutant and being a Mutant whose mother did not like that she was one. Then when they were in Seoul that solidified Wanda’s liking for the girl, she saw how her brother looked at Norah and saw how intense the two were and how they acted around one and another – they were like magnets and couldn’t help but be drawn to one and another. It made Wanda wish to know Norah, wish to become her friend.

“Norah,” Wanda said as she looked at the girl. “You worried us much.” She told her a bit nervously, though Norah couldn’t hear her make awkward conversation she still felt odd talking to her while she was unconscious. “I…I do not like that you are unconscious but you need the rest, doctor say you need it to heal up and get better. Only then will you wake up.” She said and looked over at her twin who had a pinched expression, more than likely thinking about all of the possible outcomes of Norah’s injuries and what could have happened to her if he and Clint had not been there with her. “When you wake we will talk more, get to know each other……be friends. We will have a….sleepover, yes?” she questioned, uncertain of the word she was using before she looked down at her brother who was sitting in the chair in front of Norah and holding her hand to his cheek with his eyes closed, enjoying the feel of her skin and at the fact of knowing that she was most definitely alive and on her way to healing. 

Rather than telling her brother goodbye Wanda instead opted to lean down and press a kiss to his temple before giving him a brief hug and exiting the room so that he could have some time with her by himself, something he wants to do and needs to do at the moment. 

“I do not like this Norah,” Pietro whispered as he continued to hold Norah’s hand, feeling as if he let it go then she would be taken from him and this nothing but a dream. “I do not like you being unconscious, I do not like not bantering with you, no teasing, and I do not like not seeing beautiful eyes. You are the starlight that accompanies my moon. You must, must wake soon.” He told her in a begging fashion. 

While Wanda had slipped out of the room Vision had made his way in, though he has only known Norah for but a day, if that even, he did wish her well and wish for her to make a quick recovery. He wished he could have stopped Ultron before Norah had been harmed but he was unable to do so and what was done was done, he could not change it even if he wanted to.

“She will be fine Pietro,” Vision said suddenly making the Sokovian male jump a bit, not hearing the man enter the room. “She is a fighter, we all saw that and she will fight to come back to us – to you.” He told him as he approached the bed and looked down at the girl. “It takes time.” He said to him as he gave his shoulder a pat in support before leaving the room.

Over the course of the next few hours many people came in and out of Norah’s room but Pietro stayed put, refusing to leave her now that they were with one and another and were now on the same side of things. The intimidating looking dark skinned man called Nick Fury had come in to see that Norah was doing well and survived surgery, he glanced at Pietro curiously but didn’t say anything to him before he left the room. A few of the other’s came in and out of the room but for the most part went to go and find a place to sleep for the however many hours it would take to get back to Stark Tower. To home. 

Tony came back in and when he saw Pietro sitting with Norah he demanded that he leave and that he wasn’t welcome but Pietro held steadfast and refused to leave, he said if he had to he would run with Tony until he was on the complete opposite side of the ship/plane or whatever the thing was if he had to but he was not leaving Norah’s side. He was going to stay there as long as he could, he would stay because he cared for Norah and no matter what Tony believed or thought of him he did truly care of Norah and would be by her side. 

Tony had glared at Pietro when he said that but decided against arguing against the kid, he was pretty damn fast and instead hunkered down in another chair that was in the room on the opposite side of Norah and crossed his arms like a petulant child and sat there with his daughter, watching her and watching every move Pietro made with narrowed eyes. Waiting for him to make a mistake that will allow him to throw the kid out for a good reason other than the fact that he hated him because he and Norah had been flirting and had been kissing one and another. And because Norah had done all of that willingly. He never thought being a parent would be this complicating or stressful.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translations:   
> Moj mali bik , ti ćeš biti smrt za mene : my little bull, you are going to be the death of me

It was a long flight back to Stark Tower from Sokovia and that wasn’t including the detour they took to DC so that they could ground the Helicarrier and get a quinjet for Tony, the other Avengers, Norah, the three doctors that had worked on Norah and were now keeping track of her vitals, and Pietro, Wanda and Vision to use to get back to New York with. Everyone was beyond exhausted at the moment and only a few of them had even managed to try and get a bit of sleep after they had gotten the good news that Norah had made it through surgery and was now on the way to recovery, albeit with the aid of being put into a medical induced a coma, but she was on the way to healing up and that was really the only thing that mattered to them. But even after receiving that relieving news it was hard to fall asleep after everything that had happened, they were tired there was no denying that but once everything had cumulated – the fighting, the planning, the energy from fighting and the thrill of finally, finally defeating Ultron once and for all. All of that rolled into them having way too many things going on in their minds, thinking about too many things and making it almost impossible to try and sleep even if it was only for a few short hours.

Tony looked out of the front window of the jet and gave a grimace; Stark Tower was the place where everything went to hell and where he decided to let his eccentric tendencies get away from him and had tried to make Ultron happen. And this was where Pepper was, Pepper his beautiful and incredibly smart girlfriend who was more than likely going to skin him alive once she was mollified about the state of Norah and her injuries. The moment Pepper was certain that Norah was in good hands and that there wasn’t going to be any lasting damages to her other than a handful of scars, well, Tony was going to be fair game then and there and Pepper wouldn’t hesitate to hunt him down throughout the tower until she found out where he was holed up at. Personally, Tony would let her do whatever damage she wanted to do to him – he deserved it. 

“Almost there.” Clint said quietly from the pilot seat of the jet as they were flying in the air a bit above the city of New York where thousands upon thousands of people lived and not many of them even had a clue to what had almost happened to them, how close they all had come to being destroyed by Ultron simply because they were humans. “You okay?” Clint asked as he glanced sideways at Tony who was in the co-pilot seat with a discontent look on his face, his shoulder sagged forwards and his arms crossed over his chest.

When Clint had asked that all Tony gave in response was a loud scoff, “Yeah, I’m just fucking peachy.” He said snidely to him even though he knew that Clint didn’t deserve his frustration and anger that he felt towards himself. “I’m doing damn great Robin Hood. I only created a murder bot, almost got all of us killed along with the rest of the human race, nearly got Norah killed, ended up getting Norah shot by the thing that was supposed to protect us and on top of that, the cherry on top of all of that is that the girl who I consider a daughter somehow managed to find a guy during all of this, a guy that was with Ultron originally, and now the two of them have a…a,” he paused for a moment while gesturing with his hands in the airy trying to think of the right word to use in this sort of situation. “A thing,” he said lamely. “Going on between the two of them. I don’t get how that happened and I don’t really like it. So yeah.” Tony said angrily as he glared out at the sky. “I’m doing great right now.” He vented to Clint who just sat there and listened to his friend complain about everything that has happened in the last week.

Clint felt sympathy for Tony when he heard that; Tony had intended to do something good for the world, he wanted to create something that would protect the people of Earth from the outside forces that they couldn’t handle – Aliens being an example – and Ultron had stemmed from that but had ended up being ten times worse than the aliens that had invaded a few years back and now Tony was seeing firsthand what his mistake has done to someone he loved more than his own life. Clint was angry at Tony, there was really no getting around that and the eccentric genius shouldn’t have been screwing round with Loki’s scepter but he did and he nearly got everyone killed. But even if he was angry at the man it didn’t mean that he didn’t feel bad for what he was going through right now. There’s really no point in him holding onto his anger and frustration with Tony the man was already beating himself up enough over the fact that Norah had been shot and nearly died from those wounds.

“Tony I-“ Clint started to say as they came into view of the tower but stopped himself, he knew that there wasn’t anything he could say that would help Tony at the moment, if the man wanted to feel angry and hate himself then he would.

So instead of doing a half-assed attempt at reassuring Tony about what happened and telling him that he doesn’t have a reason to worry and that everything will turn out fine he stayed quiet and eased the jet into the docking station at the top of the tower, and there waiting for them was Pepper with narrowed eyes along with Doctor Cho and two of her team members from her lab in Seoul. Yep, no doubt that Pepper was pissed. 

~_~_~_~_~_~_~.~_~_~_~_~_~_~._~_~_~_~_~_~_._~_~_~_~_~_~_

When Pepper had finally gotten a good look at Norah and the damage that was done to her – the doctors were changing her bandages – she couldn’t help but let out an audible gasp at the sight that greeted her and cover her mouth in shock. Norah, sweet, playful and stubborn Norah had a plethora of bruises covering her body and had more bandages covering her body than Pepper liked. Zero would be preferable but unrealistic at the present moment. There were bruises covering Norah’s chest, some of which were from the impact of the bullets and some of the others on her chest looked as if she had been grabbed by someone or something and thrown hard. There were also a few on her arms and sides from fighting and battling in Sokovia, and there were even a few on her face but nothing nearly as horrific as seeing the bullet wounds in Norah’s body. Seeing the gunshot wounds in person made Pepper inhale sharply and have to close her eyes for a few moments so that she could try and calm herself and calm her irrational mind that was immediately thinking that Norah was going to die from those wounds, the fact that some of her wounds were seeping blood was not helping either. Seeing Norah like this was, god, it was horrible and it made it hard for Pepper to try and keep the tears at bay and to keep them from threatening to fall down her face. 

The places where the bullets had entered Norah’s body made Pepper wonder, really wonder how in the world she was able to survive until they were able to get her onto the Helicarrier and into surgery before she bled out. She was obviously happy over the fact that Norah had survived but it was shocking that she was able to hang on to life long enough to get to the medbay and to the doctors who then proceeded to try and save her life from the wounds she had received. 

Pepper thanked whatever gods existed be they the gods that Thor came from, the Hindu gods or even the Christian god, Pepper thanked every single one of them for the fact that Norah was still alive and was only in a medical induced a coma so that she had time to heal from some of her worse wounds and hadn’t died on the operating table on the Helicarrier and now was in the Medical Wing of Stark Towers being looked over by Cho, her two team mates from Seoul and the three doctors who had operated on her and saved her life. 

“Heart rate is steady.” Cho said as she looked at the heart rate monitor that was hooked up to Norah and then looked over at the curly blonde haired girl who was lying unconscious in a rather large sized hospital bed – Stark’s are extravagant in all aspects apparently. “Blood pressure is good too.”

One of the other doctors in the room, one of the one’s who had operated on Norah, peeled away one of the bandages that covered the two bullet wounds in her side and threw the soiled bandage on a cart that was near the bedside. “Her wounds are bleeding a bit more than expected after her surgery, but nothing to worry too much about. It’s probably from jostling her around and transferring her from her hospital bed from the Helicarrier to this one.” She said clinically as she went to work cleaning the bleeding wound and doing what she could to slow the bleeding down a bit before she rebandaged the wound. “The skin is bruised around the entry wound and tender but not unusual for the injuries she received.” 

One of Cho’s doctor’s put a stethoscope to Norah’s chest and listened to her breathing for a few moments before she took the ear pieces out and slung it around her neck, “Her breathing isn’t too labored right now and once her lung heals up in a week or so it should sound near normal, we just have to be sure that she is getting those antibiotic’s to make sure no infection sets in. The moment that happens things will go downhill very fast and possibly without any warning.” He said with a heavy Korean accent as he said this to the crowded medical room they were in at the moment. 

For a while after that the doctors talked medical jargon about the wounds Norah suffered from and the medical induced a coma she was in at the moment and when they thought she might be able to wake up, for the most part though neither Tony nor Pepper really understood much of what they were talking about but they did understand the general gist of things. 

“So,” Tony said a bit rudely earning a jab in the ribs from Pepper but he really didn’t care if he was being rude or not, he wanted to know what Cho and her team thought and hated waiting. He wasn’t exactly known for being the most patient person in the world. “What’s the verdict Cho?” he asked with his arms crossed over his chest impatiently. 

It wasn’t that Tony didn’t trust Fury’s doctors but, well quite honestly, he didn’t trust Fury’s doctors that he probably picked up off of the street. Bruce trusted Cho and her prowess as a doctor and so, Tony trusted Cho.   
Cho took her latex gloves off and washed her hands at the sink that was in the corner of the room and looked over towards Pepper and Tony, both of whom had anxious expressions on their faces, as if they were expecting to hear some sort of dire news. “Norah is fine considering she got shot with multiple bullets,” she told them and then turned and nodded towards the SHIELD doctors that Fury had found. “They did a great job patching her up and managed to get all of the bullets out with little to no problems. The only wound I’m concerned with, as the other doctors have said is the one in her lung. But we’re going to be keeping a close eye on that for the next three days to a week to see how it’s coming along.” She said to them reassuringly. 

Tony looked over at Norah for a moment; her body was limp and looking paler than her usual pale skin tone, her hair flung all over the place and looking very weak something he would have never attributed to Norah before in his life. The moment Tony met Norah she’s been the sort of woman that was a force to be reckoned with, she didn’t give a ‘fuck’ as she would say of what other people thought of her, she was sarcastic, she liked to joke around and was a very easy going person who wouldn’t hesitate to rip a person to pieces if they dared hurt those she cared about. Seeing her like this…..it was painful to say the least. 

Shaking his head from those thoughts Tony looked at Cho, “What about the cradle? Can’t we use that on her like we did with Clint?” he asked excitedly, hope gleaming in his eyes at the possibility of being able to use it to heal Norah and gave her be good as new in nothing but a few hours rather than having her to endure being in a coma and a long recovery from the bullet wounds she suffered by Ultron’s hand.

Cho looked at Tony sympathetically and shook her head at him, “I thought of that as well and as much as I would love to use it on her so that she wouldn’t have to suffer or be in too much pain it’s simply not possible.” She told him with a sad smile on her face as she looked between him and Pepper who had a downcast expression on her face. “I know this is a horrible situation and you only want the best for Norah and want her to heal as soon as possible but you need to understand that she only just got out of surgery a handful of hours ago, she was shot multiple times and all that rolled together puts a bit of stress on the body. What she needs right now it time to adjust and heal.” She explained to him calmly. 

At that Tony looked at her in anger and frustration, not understanding why they couldn’t use it. “Why? What exactly will happen if we put her in the cradle while like this? If it heals her up faster why-“ he began to say loudly, more than willing to argue his point until Cho saw things his way. 

But before Tony had a chance to finish his sentence he was interrupted by the stony voice of Pepper. “Tony.” She commanded quietly, silently telling him to stop arguing with Cho about using the cradle on Norah. “Come with me, now.” She said as she grasped him around the arm and pulled him forcefully towards the door that led to hallway of the Medical Wing. 

Reluctantly Tony looked away from Cho and Norah who had a handful of doctors hovering over her and cleaning her wounds and instead followed after Pepper like a puppy dog who just got kicked none too nicely; he didn’t want to leave Norah and he definitely didn’t want to leave until he convinced Cho to do what he wanted but he knew when Pepper said his name that it was time to have that talk of theirs or rather the impending argument here Pepper was going to rip him from limb to limb until he understood how big of a mistake he made. All Tony could really hope for was that Pepper would eventually forgive him for what he did, hell he didn’t care if it took a week or even a month for her to forgive him he would wait as long as he had to and get on his knees and beg for forgiveness if that’s what it took. 

“Pepper,” Tony started to say once they had found a hallway that they could talk in that was far enough away that no one in the Medical Wing would be able to hear the two of them arguing. “Look I-“ 

Before Tony had the chance to utter more than three words Pepper suddenly looked up at him with a harsh look on her face and leveled him with a look that made him snap his mouth shut with an audible click, in that one look Tony could see how absolutely furious, hurt, disappointed and sad at everything Tony did and for what Norah was going through at the moment. “You don’t get to speak right now Anthony. After everything that you did and after having the gall to ask Norah to help you and the others on your mission, you definitely do not get to speak at the moment. You will stand there, be quiet and listen to what I have to say. You will listen to me talk, yell and scream at you to my heart’s content. “Do you understand me?” she questioned and looked expectantly at Tony who gave a nod of affirmation to what she said. 

Taking a deep breath Pepper closed her eyes for a moment and tried to get all of her thoughts in order before she tried to talk to Tony; there were many things she wanted to say to Tony when she had first heard about what happened and none of them were very nice things. She wanted to call Tony an asshole, a damn selfish asshole who only cared for himself and didn’t care what the repercussions of his decisions were to the world or the people around him but no matter how much Pepper wanted to say those things and believe those things she knew that they weren’t completely true. Tony did all that he did because he cared about the world – because he cared about Pepper and Norah with all that he was.

“What in the hell were you thinking Tony?” Pepper demanded of him as she strode over to stand directly in front of Tony with her hands on her hips in an unimpressed manner and narrowed her eyes. “Ultron? Really?” she questioned but didn’t give him time to respond. “You told me that was something that was even out of your reach, you said that it wasn’t possible to create because the technology needed didn’t exist. That the technology needed to create that…that thing was decades away from even considering being created. You promised me that you would put that on the backburner, you promised that you would get rid of it since it wasn’t possible.” She said to him furiously, her pace pinched n anger at what Tony did while she was gone on a business trip, something which would have never happened if she had been home at the time. “Not to mention that the idea of Ultron was completely unrealistic and idiotic, you can’t protect the world from everything Tony. You can’t protect people from aliens or whatever may want to attack us.” She yelled at him, her hair flying around her face as she paced back and forth in front of Tony. “You can’t protect everyone Tony.” she said to him softly; she loved Tony but right at that exact moment she was not all that fond of him. 

Cringing at that, Tony opened his mouth to say something to his irate girlfriend. “Pep-“

Pepper made a motion with her hand for Tony to close his mouth which he quickly adhered to, “This project of yours was supposed to protect the people of the world Tony, that’s what you told me when you started to develop it. You told me not to worry, that you knew what you were doing and that this would be for the good of the world, it would be something that would protect everyone from Aliens and any other creatures that managed to find their way onto our planet….things that would try and do us harm.” She said and did her best to stay calm and collected but it was a fight to do so, she was pissed and was even more so after she saw the damage to Norah. “Look what it did instead Tony, look at the destruction it cause – what you caused!” she yelled at him and clenched her fists at her side, telling herself that it was not worth it to punch Tony and injure herself in the process. “You caused the thing to go crazy, to decide WE aren’t worth it, that we need to die in order to make the world a better place. You made him the thing he became, you said he was supposed to help us but all he did was try and kill us and would have destroyed the world if Steve and the others hadn’t decided to take action. You caused them to get into a fight that shouldn’t have been necessary because you can’t seem to control yourself, because you can’t seem to stop yourself from messing with things that shouldn’t be messed with. You caused your daughter to nearly die Tony.” 

With a subdued look on his face Tony listened to Pepper talk and listened to every single thing that she had to say to him about what he did; he listened to her retell him what he did, the destruction his creation caused not to just Norah but to the people in Sokovia and Seoul as well. If it weren’t for him then the people in Sokovia wouldn’t have had to evacuate their homes and everything they knew simply to flee to safety. If it hadn’t been for him those people wouldn’t have bene in danger from Ultron, but they had been and it was on his shoulders. It was his fault that this had happened and he knew without a doubt that nothing would be able to make up from what he did; he couldn’t make it up to his friends, he couldn’t make it up to Steve, Thor, Clint, Natasha, Bruce and he wouldn’t be able to make it up enough anytime soon to get them all to trust him again because of this. He couldn’t make it up to the people of Sokovia, he couldn’t make it up to Pepper and he definitely wouldn’t be able to make it up to Norah.

“Do you realize how lucky we are that Norah didn’t die?” Pepper questioned as she talked with her hands as she stood a bit away from Tony. “Do you realize that if one of those bullets had gone in at a different angle that she could have bleed out in seconds and there would have been nothing anyone could do? If that bullet that had gone through her lung had been on the opposite side of her chest and aimed higher she could have been shot through the heart. She would have died instantly Anthony!” she yelled at him and pushed at him in anger, frustration and heartbreak over what he did and over what happened to Norah. 

Trying to control her breathing but failing miserably, Pepper looked up at Tony with watery eyes, tears threatening to spill over and down her cheeks. “She….she could have died Tony. We could have lost Norah.” She whispered hoarsely before the tears started to stream down her face, lifting her hand she tried to cover her mouth to hide the sobs that wanted to escape but she was unable to muffle them. 

Even though pepper was angry at him Tony stepped forwards and didn’t even hesitate to pull Pepper into his arms and comfort her the best he could, immediately Pepper grasped at the front of whatever band shirt he was wearing at the moment and cried into the crook of his neck wetting the shirt he was wearing but Tony didn’t care about that, the only thing that mattered was Pepper. Wrapping an arm around Pepper’s waist and cradling the back of her head with his other hand Tony pulled Pepper closer to him and whispered soothing words into her ear and kissed her temple lovingly, telling her that he was there with her and that Norah was going to be okay and that everything was over now. He whispered how sorry he was, how much he hated himself and how much he loved her and how much he loved Norah. 

“Don’t think that just because I’m hugging you right now and crying into your shoulder that you’re off the hook,” Pepper murmured into the cloth of Tony’s shirt, her head still pressed into his shoulder but the crying all but ceased. “Because you’re not. You are so far from being off the hook Anthony Stark. I love you but I am beyond furious with you at the moment.” She said as she leaned heavily into his chest letting him support of lithe form.  
At that statement Tony couldn’t help but let loose a small chuckle, “Me?” he asked feigning innocence. “Would I ever do such a thing?” 

Pepper poked him in the side, “Yes. Yes you would Tony.” She said softly and then gave a sigh as she enjoyed the warmth that Tony was giving off, it’s been two long weeks without seeing him or Norah. 

For a few moments after that both Pepper and Tony just stayed their embrace, enjoying the feeling of being near one and another once again and being able to gain whatever comfort they could from the other. Both of them were doing their best to not think about the whole Ultron situation, about the fact that Norah was shot multiple times or the fact that Tony had made one of the biggest mistakes of his life when he decided to mess with Loki’s scepter. 

“I do not mean to interrupt.” The familiar voice of Vision said from a few feet away from where Tony and Pepper were embracing. “But I was hoping to be properly introduced.” 

Looking over Pepper’s light ginger colored hair and saw that Vision, Pietro and Wanda were standing in the hallway with them and were looking at him and Pepper with curiosity; giving an annoyed sigh at having been interrupted Tony reluctantly pulled away from Pepper and turned towards where the tri were standing at the moment. 

“You’re a damn good mood killer Red, did you know that.” Tony said sarcastically to the man who cocked his head to the side in confusion when Tony said that. “Pepper,” he said as he turned her towards the three. “This is Vision, he’s basically what Ultron was supposed to be without the whole wanting to kill off the human race thing,” he said quickly before Pepper could get angry and go off on him again. “And these are the Maximoff twins, Pietro and Wanda.” He said as he gave Pietro the stink eye, he wasn’t fond of whatever sort of thing Norah and the kid had going on. 

Pepper stared at the man who was introduced as Vision with wide eyes; he had skin the color of bright red with gold bits and a cape that looked like it was made from liquid gold and sounded exactly like Jarvis but was obviously not Jarvis and the only reason she could think of for that was that Tony did something. The moment both she and Tony got a bit of sleep Pepper was definitely going to be having a very long talk with Tony about what was acceptable to do and mess with and what things, under no circumstances, should be altered simply because Tony felt the urge. Men. 

Pepper then turned towards the twins and gave a curious look, “Weren’t you two with-“ she began to say but Wanda interrupted her. 

“Ultron.” Wanda finished for Pepper and nodded solemnly, a tight smile on her face at revealing that information. “Yes. My brother and I were with Ultron. We joined for wrong reasons, we did not think, did not know the….” She stopped herself and tried to think of the right word in English that she wanted to use; both herself and Pietro didn’t learn how to speak English until they were around fourteen or so years old. “Did not know destruction he would cause. It is our fault; we helped create him and helped hurt people because of him. Our people. Sokovia.” She said and closed her eyes in regret and tried to not think about all of the screaming she heard and seeing her people fleeing their homes. 

Hearing that Pepper gave the long brown haired girl a sympathetic look, “It wasn’t yours or your brother’s fault. Ultron manipulated you, simple as that.” She told Wanda who couldn’t be all that much older than Norah. “You fought against him in the end and that’s really all that matters.”

Hearing that Wanda looked at Pepper and gave a small smile in appreciation, “Thank you.” She told her. 

“I tell you same thing but no, you do not listen to what I say but when she say same thing you listen.” Pietro said as he looked down at his twin and then rolled his eyes and sighed. “Unbelievable.” He said to her and nudged her in the shoulder. 

Pepper smiled at the two and thought that it would be a good thing to have them hanging around the tower, especially for Norah. Norah needed to interact with more people who were around her own age and who didn’t work for Stark Industries or who didn’t just want to get to know her simply because of Tony – not all of the men did that but a good majority did. It wasn’t fair to Norah and even though the other Avengers were like family to her and were friends with her, it wasn’t the same as making her own friends and having people around her own age who didn’t simply know her because of Tony or want to know her because of him and the only friends she stayed in contact with from Xavier’s was Piotr, Kitty and Rogue. 

“Tony,” Pepper said as she pulled Tony away from glaring at Pietro. “I’m going to head back to Norah’s room for a while and then head up to bed. Why don’t you go and show Pietro, Wanda and Vision where they can stay until we can figure out something more permanent.” She told Tony and then gave him a pointed look when she noticed he was about to argue with her. “We still have a lot more talking to do Tony.” She said as she pointed at him threateningly and then turned to Wanda and Pietro. “it was nice to meet you both.” She told them.

Wanda smiled at the fiery woman, “You as well.” She said and then elbowed Pietro in the side when he didn’t say anything to the woman.

Pietro grimaced in pain, “Ow.” He said as he glared down at his sister and then looked at Pepper. “Yes, very nice to meet you.” He said to her with a half-hearted smile. 

With that said Pepper turned and walked back towards the Medical Wing and for a minute or so Tony just watched her walk away, he enjoyed it when he got to watch her walk away from him especially when she wore those jean shorts of hers that he liked so much. Shaking his head Tony looked back at Pietro, Wanda and Vision and gave Pietro an unamused look when he saw the smirk that was tugging on the kid’s lips. If he had his way Tony would refuse to let Pietro sleep in the tower but he knew Pepper would skin him alive if he did that sadly. 

“Come on. Follow me.” Tony said as he slowly walked past Vision, Wanda and Pietro and towards the elevators that were just around the corner.

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~ Tony ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

A few hours had passed since Tony and Pepper had argued and talked about what happened and what he had did and now he was standing in the middle of his lab, leaning over a table with broken remains of projects he’s tried to create and invent and had bloodied knuckles from hitting them repeatedly in anger. He was so angry and as much as he wished he could direct and blame his anger on someone else the only one that he could direct it towards was himself and the electronics and technology that surrounded him in his lab. His hand’s ached from punching and hitting and throwing everything in sight but he didn’t really care at that point, he deserved the pain he inflicted on himself, he deserved to bleed, he deserved to have wounds on his hands from when the metal ripped into his skin. He deserved all of it. He deserved it because of what he did, because of what he created and because of what happened to Norah. 

Tony was kind of glad that Bruce was MIA, if he was here he would try to convince Tony that he didn’t deserve to put himself through this, that it wasn’t completely his fault and that inflicting pain onto himself was not the way to go about things. He would do all he could to convince Tony otherwise and eventually, after Tony’s stubbornness and anger had dissipated he would give in but not this time….this time he was going to feel every single negative emotion that was going on in his mind at the moment. 

He didn’t deserve to have Pepper as his girlfriend, he didn’t deserve to have her love and care and to have her living with him or standing beside him but she loved him anyways and accepted him. He didn’t deserve to have Norah as a daughter or to even call her daughter, she deserved someone better but for some odd reason she chose him as her self-appointed father and loved him even with all of his faults – his many faults that you’d need a whole notebook for. 

Life was full of complications, full of wrong decisions and full of hopefulness and hope that the people you cared for were willing to forgive you even if you aren’t able to forgive yourself. 

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~ Medical Wing: Norah’s Room ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

It was around one A.M. and Pepper was in a simple sleep shirt and a pair of Tony’s sweat pants and was currently sitting beside Norah’s bed; she had gone to sleep and had even slept for a few hours but eventually she woke up around midnight or a little but later and no matter how hard she tried she simply wasn’t able to fall back asleep so instead Pepper decided to take a trip to Norah’s room and sit with her and watch her for a bit to reassure herself that she was alive. 

While Pepper had been attempting to braid Norah’s hair out of the way – how Norah managed to control her wild hair, Pepper had no idea – the door of the room opened quietly and in stepped Pietro who was wearing some borrowed clothes that were more than a little baggy on him, he tied the t-shirt best he could and tied the strings around his sweat pants as much as he could but they still sagged down a bit. When the silver/blonde haired Sokovian noticed Pepper was there, who gave a half-hearted welcoming smile in greeting, was sitting there in one of the chairs by Norah’s bed he paused for a moment before he stepped further into the room and closed the door. 

“What are you doing here so late?” Pepper asked him in a motherly tone of voice, something he hasn’t heard directed at him in years. “You should be sleeping, you look exhausted.” She said sternly as she took in the dark bags underneath his eyes and the overall tired look that he gave off. 

Pietro responded to that by giving an amused smile, before she had a chance reprimand him anymore on his tired appearance he sped over to the other chair in the room on the opposite side of the bed to Pepper’s chair. “I could not sleep; I…am not used to soft bed. We did not have best of beds when growing up in Sokovia and Hydra did not care about comfort, gave us hard beds and uncomfortable mattress that was hard as a rock.” He explained to her. 

Looking away from Pepper, Pietro turned his attention to Norah and smiled softly at her sleeping/unconscious face and gently reached forward and caressed the side of her pale colored face with his fingertips and wished that he could gaze into her beautiful dark brown colored eyes but knew it would be at least a week before he was able to do so. This was the first chance that he had gotten to come and see Norah since the doctors had taken her from the quinjet and straight to the Medical Wing; he wanted to rush after them and hear what Cho had to say but knew he shouldn’t, knew that Stark and his girlfriend Pepper were basically like her parents and that they needed time alone with Norah and the doctors. That it was only fair. Once night fell and they were all heading to bed Pietro wanted to go straight to Norah’s room but Wanda had convinced him otherwise and told him to get some sleep and that he could see her the next morning, technically it was morning now. 

“Moj mali bik, ti ćeš biti smrt za mene.” Pietro said quietly to Norah as he held her hand that had the heart monitor connected to it. 

Pepper watched Pietro and had heard him murmur something in his language to Norah and smiled softly, Tony had told her that Pietro and Norah had something going on but seeing this, seeing Pietro act so tender and soft towards Norah when she was unconscious and wouldn’t be able to see or hear it was heartwarming. “Clint and Tony told me about you.” Pepper said softly as she looked across at Pietro who hasn’t moved his gaze from Norah. “Tony….well Tony didn’t have many nice things to say.” She said which made Pietro give a small snort and look up at her in amusement while he still held Norah’s hand and caressed it. “Tony said that you and Norah had some ‘weird ass flirting shit’ going on, as he said.” She said as she used finger quotation marks. 

Pietro grinned, “You know, first time we meet she chased after me even when she saw my speed and grabbed onto my shirt and tackled me to ground.” He said at the memory which seemed like it was so long ago but was in fact only about a week ago.

“Norah’s never been one to back down from a challenge,” Pepper said with a loving look on her face as she finished braiding Norah’s nearly unmanageable curly blonde hair. “When someone tells her she can’t do something or shouldn’t do something it makes her want to do it more. She’s stubborn like that.” 

Even though Pietro doesn’t know Norah all that well yet it was obvious to tell that Norah was a stubborn and determined little thing; she didn’t back down when he had hit Clint and had run after him when he was heading back to the base, when Wanda had messed with her head Norah didn’t hesitate to confront her and yell at her for making her remember that horrible time which made Pietro wish to hunt down the man and kill him with his two hands, and Norah didn’t back down when they were faced with Ultron and had saved him, Clint and that small boy. Norah was a force to be reckoned with and from what Pietro could tell she was one hell of a woman. 

“She kissed me first time we met.” Pietro admitted and glanced towards Pepper to see her amused smile and curious look. “It was after she tackled me, she was trying to tell me that Hydra did not have best interest for me and my sister. I did not believe her and so I ran once again and then she tackled me again. I think she likes to do that.” He joked to Pepper. “We were teasing, and she got message through the ear comms and told me she had to help a friend, and then she leaned down and kissed me and left before I could respond. I got her back in South Africa for that.” He said. “She is a….how you say, spitfire.” 

Pepper let a laugh escape at that revelation, “Only Norah.” She said as she shook her head at the girl lying in bed.   
With that the two lapsed into silence both looking at the girl who meant quite a bit to the both of them and hoped that it would not be too long before she woke up.


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translations:  
> Ti blesava devojko. sigurno ima njuh za dramatične ih , zar ne . Moj brat je ponaša kao dete koje je izgubio svoju omiljenu igračku , jer ste bili ranjeni . Drago mi je da su u redu , ali ja želim da ti probudiš i stavio ga na njegovo mesto i reci mu da prestane da bude takav beba .
> 
> You silly girl, you certainly have a flair for the dramatic's, don't you. My brother is acting like child who lost their favorite toy since you were injured. I am glad you are fine, but i wish for you to wake up and put him in his place and tell him to stop being such a baby.

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~ Six Days later ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

These last four days of living with the Avengers at Stark Tower have been…..interesting for Pietro and Wanda, to say the least. Pietro remembered what it had been like growing up in Sokovia with his parents and his sister; it wasn’t even close to what he has experienced in the last four days. Natasha, Clint and Steve had offered to show Wanda, Pietro and Vision around the city a bit – a way for them to get their mind off things – but Pietro had refused, saying that he would rather stay at the tower in case anything happened and in case Norah woke up earlier than expected.  
Living at the tower was like living in a completely different world; Sokovia was mothing like New York or even most of the cities in America. Pietro remembered the rundown apartment he, his parents and sister had shared, he remembered the fact that their parents would always give he and Wanda more food than they gave themselves and he also remembered the second hand clothing he and Wanda would get all of the time. One thing Pietro remembered almost crystal clear was when some of the girls at their school had been making fun of Wanda for having worn clothes with holes in them and the fact she only had two or three outfits to pick from and so Pietro confronted them at the age of eight and threatened them until they promised to leave his sister alone. Pietro remembered that his mother and father both worked multiple jobs just in order to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table, they both would come home exhausted out of their minds but would always make sure to help both Pietro and Wanda with their homework and make time for ‘family fun’ as they had called it, a time when they would do something that wasn’t work or school related with one and another.  
At the tower though, neither Pietro nor Wanda had to want for anything if they didn’t want to. If they wanted to they could have the newest tablets, computers and phones available – Stark would probably insist on the one’s he created – but the two siblings weren’t all that into electronics. If they wanted to have a three course meal there were ingredients in the kitchen and pantry to do just that, there were multiple rooms with TV’s in them – some the size of the walls in the room – there was a game room with video games and systems such as Xbox, a Will, a playstation 3 among other things. On another level in the tower there was a fully stocked bar, the common room which was connected to the kitchen which had plenty of room for all of the Avengers and anyone that they might invited over. It was a shock to the system that was for sure.   
At the present moment Pietro was sitting at the kitchen island digging into a plate that was stacked full of eggs, sausage and toast with some flavored preserve by himself. He had an unnaturally fast metabolism from the experiments they did on him which resulted in him burning calories and food at a much faster rate than a normal person would and so he had to either eat much bigger meals or eat more meals throughout the day just to stay healthy. With a mouthful of food Pietro looked around the kitchen and listened quietly to see if he could hear if any of the others were around at the moment but all he heard was silence which means none of the Avengers were near him or on the level he was on at the moment – most of them weren’t known for being all that quiet – which meant they were off doing whatever it is that they did when they weren’t fighting the ‘bad guys’ so to say. His sister though, well Pietro had no idea where she was either but he assumed she was either getting acquainted with the tower and figuring out where everything was, reading or she was talking with Vision….again. He didn’t like Wanda spending so much time with Vision, it made him feel protective.  
While Pietro was distracted with his thoughts – mostly thinking about Norah and the fact his sister was spending time with a male – a book suddenly clattered onto the countertop in front of him making him jump in surprise, looking away from the worn book that was suddenly thrown at him he looked up and saw Natasha.   
“What is this?” Pietro questioned, a brow raised at the red headed assassin in curiosity.   
Natasha moved through the room gracefully and settled herself in a chair opposite from Pietro and smirked at him as she leant forward on her elbows and settled her chin in the palm of one of her hands. “I believe,” she said to him. “They call them books.”   
Pietro glowered at her when she said that to him, if the woman wasn’t a trained killer he would think of ways to get her back for that comment but he didn’t have a death wish. “I know what a book is.” He said in annoyance. “Why do you give to me?” he questioned, his brow furrowing.   
“Norah loves poetry,” Natasha told Pietro simply. “Especially Shakespeare and Edgar Allan Poe. Read it to her.” She elaborated.   
At that comment Pietro stopped eating for a moment and cocked his head to the side in confusion as he stared at the redhead that was sitting in front of him and sitting there while looking at him with an unreadable look in her eyes. It was curious that Natasha was being nice to him – her version of being nice at least – and for the life of him Pietro couldn’t understand why especially since it was his sister Wanda that had messed with her mind and made her relieve a terrible time in her life. If Pietro was in Natasha’s place he would not hesitate to hurt him, to do anything possible to deter him from talking or being near Norah and would make sure he knew how much he disliked him.   
“Why are you telling me this?” Pietro questioned as he picked his plate up that was empty of all of his food and sped it over to the sink and was back in his seat before fifteen seconds had passed by. “Why are you being….nice?” he asked, uncertain if that was the word he was looking for exactly.   
Natasha studied Pietro with an unreadable expression for a few moments, unnerving the Sokovian a bit with how guarded her eyes were, and finally opened her mouth to tell him why she was being ‘nice’ as he put it. “You and your sister may have been fighting against us at the beginning, and your sister may have reminded me of a …..horrible time in my life when I was younger but Norah means a lot to me even if I don’t show it like the others do. I may only be a few years older than you, Norah and Wanda but I had to grow up faster than most people because of who I was raised by and how I was raised. Because of my upbringing it’s hard to trust people, to care for people as easily as the other’s do but Norah….well Norah is a whirlwind and nothing stand’s a chance against her.” She said with a chuckle which earned a small smile from Pietro who experienced just that with Norah in the woods of Sokovia when they had first met. “I care for Norah, she’s the closest female friend that I have and is like a….a sister to me almost and I want the best for her even if Tony can’t see that it is what is best for her.” She told him and paused for a moment as she looked out of the floor to ceiling windows that covered one whole wall of the common room/kitchen area. “I haven’t seen everything that’s been going on between you and Norah, or as Tony likes to call it ‘the weird ass flirting thing’ but I am a spy and I can see things in the smallest of gestures and movements and I can see that you care for Norah and that Norah cares for you in return even though you two haven’t known each other all that long.”  
At that Pietro looked down at the marbled counter top and couldn’t help but agree with the last thing that Natasha had said to him; even though he’s only known Norah for such a short amount of time he cared deeply for her and didn’t have a clue how these feelings had developed so fast and so intensely for her. He was lost the moment Norah opened her mouth to sass off to him, Norah was his little spitfire, his little bull and Pietro knew that in time he would grow to not just care for her deeply but to eventually love her. Love was a terrifying thought for him. He remembered the love of his parents and the love that he had for them and he knows the feeling of love that he held for his sister but loving someone that wasn’t family, well for Pietro that was uncharted territory.   
“You chose the wrong side in the beginning,” Natasha said to Pietro as she looked into his blue colored eyes closely. “But you came over to our side eventually, you helped us fight against Ultron and helped us defeat his metal army. You are a good person even if Tony doesn’t think so at the moment, but he’s also an eccentric asshole most of the time.” She said flippantly and gave a shrug of her shoulders which made Pietro snicker. “I’ve seen how you are always by her side if you can be, how you look at her as if she is the center of everything and how you do what you can to be sure she is comfortable even when she’s unconscious.” She said with a whisper of a smile on her face, a true smile which only her closest of friends got to see. “You’d be good for her and she deserves to date someone and be with someone who wasn’t an asshole like her last two boyfriends were. Someone who wouldn’t look at her like a freak simply because she was a Mutant. Someone who didn’t care that she was Tony Stark’s daughter.”   
Hearing that Pietro smiled softly and then nodded at Natasha, “Thank you, is nice to hear that from someone who is not Pepper.” He said to her. “Your friend….Clint, he does not like me. It is surprising to me that you…approve? That is right word, yes?” he questioned.  
Natasha nodded at him, “Clint is still a bit bitter about what happened in Sokovia and South Africa but he’ll come around, don’t worry.” She said to him with a smirk on her face as she stood up from the stool and turned to leave but before she did she looked down at Pietro menacingly. “If you tell anyone that this conversation happened or about what was said I will gut you and hang you from the ceiling as decoration. Do you understand?” she questioned as she looked at him pointedly, her brows raised in an expectant manner.   
Pietro nodded at her stiffly, not daring to utter a word to the assassin who as small as she was could be utterly terrifying.   
“Good.” Natasha said in a pleasant tone of voice. “Go and read to her.” She said and then turned heel and left without another word to Pietro.   
Not wanting to waste any time, Pietro quickly left the common room/kitchen area and headed towards the Medical Wing – to Norah.

~_~_~_~_~_~.~_~_~_~_~_.~_~_~_~_~_~.~_~_~_~_~_~.~_~_~_~_~

Wanda never liked hospital rooms, they were too white and smelled like a mixture of bleach and staleness, not exactly the most pleasant of smells out there, but then again her experience with hospital rooms were none too pleasant. Hydra’s attempt at a hospital room was where she and Pietro had been experimented on for hours on end, though they had volunteered to be experimented on for the betterment of their country it did not mean that they didn’t suffer at Hydra’s hands, that they didn’t feel pain from them and have horrible nightmare’s because of what Hydra did to them and made them suffer through just because Strucker had said the right thing at the protests and had convinced them and half the people of Sokovia that they were doing something good. . . . . . that they were trying to help their country.

This room of Norah’s though, it was not so bad. The walls were not a stone grey color or brilliant white, it was a soft blue color that made Wanda only think of peaceful things and not about the horrible things she has seen in her life thus far, it made her feel as if she was safe and didn’t have to worry about anything ever again. It was a nice place to be, considering the circumstances and all Wanda hoped was that Norah would wake soon so that her brother would calm down and stop confining himself to the tower and so that everyone else would stop fretting around like little girls – other than Natasha of course.

“Ti blesava devojko.” Wanda said from Norah’s bedside, speaking to the stubborn blonde haired girl in her mother tongue even if she couldn’t hear her. “Sigurno ima njuh za dramatične ih, zar ne. Moj brat je ponaša kao dete koje je izgubio svoju omiljenu igračku , jer ste bili ranjeni.” She said with an amused shake of her head. “Drago mi je da su u redu, ali ja želim da ti probudiš i stavio ga na njegovo mesto i reci mu da prestane da bude takav beba.” She finished with a slight look of annoyance on her face.

Wanda looked down at Norah and smiled hopefully; hoping that her wounds would heal faster and that they would be able to bring her out of her medically induced a coma sooner and she hoped to get to know Norah better once she wakes. The only real friend that Wanda has ever had has been Pietro, there was a girl in elementary school that she had been friends with – Ksena – but she and her family had moved away after Wanda and Pietro had turned nine. Sure, Wanda has talked a bit with Pepper and Natasha since coming to the tower but it was different. Pepper was older than Wanda and had a business to run as Stark put it, and Natasha was a bit intimidating and terrifying to talk to or to even think of approaching. Wanda may be powerful and able to do destructive things with her power if she wished it but even she was intelligent enough to realize that she shouldn’t cross the red-headed Russian assassin. 

So Wanda does hope that Norah wakes up soon so that she may get to know her better and hopefully become friends with her, so that she could have a girl to do all of those girl things with and to talk about girl stuff with – boys, makeup, periods even, to have a chick flick movie night, to go shopping together and things such as that. Wanda wanted all of that since she never had the chance to have it, she wanted to have a female friend that she could talk about anything with and hoped that Norah would eventually be that person.

Before Wanda had a chance to continue with her train of thoughts the door was suddenly pushed open and in walked Thor who had a wide grin on his face which only grew widen when he spotted Wanda sitting beside Norah’s bed. “Lady Wanda!” he boomed as he strode forward and clasped her shoulder in a greeting. “I have not seen you about these last few days.” 

“I can be as you say, sneaky, when I want to be.” Wanda replied with a small smile on her face as she looked at the blonde haired Norse God that seemed to tower above her. “I have been wandering, exploring, to find where everything is in Tower. I got lost a few times.” She admitted sheepishly. 

Hearing that Thor nodded in understanding, “I, too have gotten lost here. The home of Tony Stark is massive but not nearly as grand as my home – Asgard. There are no golden halls filled with plentiful food, or a Throne room or even that impressive of an armory.” He said as he shook his head in disappointment, as if these were grave offenses to him. “You would not mind if I-“ he said, cutting himself off and gesturing to the other chair that was beside Wanda and near Norah’s bed. 

Wanda nodded without hesitation and gestured to the chair, “Yes, sit. I can leave if you want.” She said to him, thinking he might want alone time to talk with her but instead Thor shook his head at her and gestured for her to stay seated.

“No, sit.” He insisted. “I am going to tell her a tale from my home, you can stay and listen if you want.” He said to her as he sat down in the chair that she offered him.

At that Wanda looked at Thor curiously for a few moments before she gave a nod and settled herself back into the cushioned chair that was beside Norah’s bed, wondering what kind of stories and tales Thor had from his homeland/home world of Asgard. 

“To the north lies Niflheim, covered by ice and snow,” Thor’s deep voice sounded throughout the room. “To the south lies Múspell, a world seething in fire and flames. Between was a vast emptiness called Ginnungagap. Venomous water from the spring Hvergelmir in Niflheim flowed into this emptiness, freezing again and again, layer after layer of ice and rime frost.” He spoke from her bedside as he looked at the unconscious Norah who he has come to care for like he did for his other Avenger friends. “Hot winds from Múspell blew over the ice, causing it to thaw and drip. Life began in these drops and took the form of the giant, Ymir, the first of the evil frost giants. As Ymir slept, he sweated. A man and a woman grew out of the ooze under his left armpit, and one of Ymir's legs fathered a six headed son on the other leg. Thus, Ymir was the forefather of all the giants.”

While Thor was speaking in his warm tone of voice the door to Norah’s room opened up once again and quietly, in walked Pietro who gave a small smile to Wanda and Thor who looked over at him. Thor nodded at him but turned his attention back to Norah, telling the story of creation as his people knew it to be; he’s always enjoyed Norah’s love and fascination for anything and everything related to Norse mythology, it was nice to know that there were still mortals out there who were fascinated by his people, by their history and by their stories.

Rather than venturing further into the room Pietro opted to lean up against the wall near the door of the room, the book Natasha had given him to read to Norah pressed up against his chest by his crossed arms and listened to the rest of the story that Thor was telling Norah. 

“Some of the other melting ice took the form of a cow, Auðhumla.” Thor continued on, his voice soft but deep. “From her teats ran four rivers of milk, enough to nourish Ymir. She fed off the ice, licking the salty blocks. Her licking formed one of the blocks into the shape of a man. The shape became animated, and the man named Búri walked free out of the ice.” He spoke and paused for a moment remembering the stories of his homeland – of his people. “Búri had a son called Bor, who married Bestla, the daughter of a giant. They produced three sons, Óðin, Vili, and Vé. Óðin, Vili, and Vé took Ymir's body to the center of Ginnungagap. From his body, they made the world. Ymir's flesh became the earth, and his unbroken bones the mountains. From his teeth and bone fragments, they made rocks and stones. They used his blood to make the lakes and ocean encircling the world. They raised Ymir's skull over the earth to make the sky and placed a dwarf at each of the four corners to hold up the sky. Glowing embers from Múspell were thrown into the sky to make the sun and moon and stars and planets. Ymir's brains were thrown into the sky to make the clouds. Ymir's eyebrows were used to make a fortification around the world, to protect against the giants. Inside the fortification is Miðgarð, the realm of man.”

With that said the story Thor was telling ended and for a few moments Thor, Pietro and Wanda sat in a comfortable silence, all their gazes directed towards Norah who still laid unconscious and unaware that she was surrounded by people who cared for her and were waiting for her to wake up. 

Wanda looked over towards Thor with curiosity in her eyes, “That was story from your homeland, yes?” she questioned.

Thor nodded, “Yes, it is the creation of the worlds. Of Asgard, of Midgard, of Niflheim, of all the nine realms.” He said to her with a soft smile, he enjoyed talking of the stories of his people and explaining them in detail to any who would listen, Norah being one of such people. 

“Did all that happen?” Wanda questioned, never in all her life had she heard of any such story or tale like the one that Thor had just told, but then again, she has never met an actual god before now. 

“It is said that it did.” Thor said to her before he looked over at Pietro and the book that was within his hands and then looked back at Norah once again before he placed a gentle hand on her forearm. “Sleep well my friend and heal, you have many who wish to see you wake.” He said and stood from his seat, his massive form seeing to dwarf Wanda who was still seated. “I will take my leave now, good day friends.” He said with a smile and gave a nod to Pietro before leaving the room to go and do who knows what.

Wanda looked over towards her brother who was just staring at Norah and shook her head at him before she gestured for him to join her at the curly haired woman’s bedside and in less than a moment Pietro was seated in the chair that Thor had once occupied and had a book held loosely on top of his lap while looking at Norah intently, as if he was hoping she would miraculously wake from her induced a coma. A hopeful thought, but unrealistic. 

“Pietro,” Wanda said as she looked at her twin in concern. “You have not left tower since arrive here, you coop self up in this tower and only go to gym, kitchen, bedroom and this room. It….it worries me.” She told him honestly with expressive eyes as she looked up into his blue colored eyes, trying to convey how worried she was for him. “It is not good for you. Norah will be fine, you do not need to keep self here in the tower all hours of day, you can take time for yourself, to see New York. It is alive all hours of the day and Norah will still be here when you get back.” She said to him. 

For the first two or three days Wanda understood Pietro not wanting to leave the tower and not wanting to leave Norah’s side – even with the glared that Tony sent him when the two men were in the room together – but refusing to leave whatsoever, even refusing to go down the street to get some coffee and pastries. Well, Wanda thought it was getting a bit excessive. The doctors told them that Norah was going to recover just fine, a few scars on her body but otherwise she was going to be fine and they passed the time frame where there was a chance for her to get infection so Pietro really had no reason to worry so much and hover around Norah as if she was going to drop dead any moment. 

“No.” Pietro said stubbornly as he shook his head at his sister. “I won’t leave until she can.” He told her.  
“Pietro-“ Wanda started but was interrupted by him giving her a pointed look which made her stop herself.   
He shook his head at her once again, “It is part my fault why she is here, why she was shot by Ultron. I will not leave till she can leave with me.” He told her with a set jaw.

Pietro refused, absolutely refused to leave the tower until Norah woke up from the a coma she was in at the moment and was able to walk out of Stark Tower on her own and show him around the massive and bright city of New York that seemed to never sleep. Seeing New York and being shown all that there is to see and do was something that Pietro wanted to experience and do with Norah, something normal that a person his and Norah’s age would do when they were interested and had romantic feelings towards one and another – a date. 

“All right.” Wanda said with a tone of acceptance and grabbed her brother’s free hand and squeezed lightly, a show of support in his decision. “Do you wish for me to leave?” she questioned as she looked at him.

At that Pietro nodded, “Please?” he asked her.

Wanda gave a gentle smile and patted him on the hand, “Yes, I do not mind. I have chatted to her already. I will visit her again, you take your time with her.” She said and stood from her spot and adjusted the new clothes Pepper had forced her to buy when they had gone out in the city. “I love you.” She said and kissed him atop his blonde/silver colored haired head.

“I love you too sister.” He said as he looked up at her with a soft smile on his face.

“I will see you at dinner.” Wanda said and left the hospital room that Norah occupied so that her brother could have some alone time with the woman he cared deeply for. 

Once Pietro was alone in Norah’s medical room he pulled his chair closer to her bedside and crossed his legs while sitting on his chair and pulled one of Norah’s hands into his – the one with the sensor on it – and pressed the warm palm against his cheek and closed his eyes for a moment. Every day he came into Norah’s room and waited until there was no one there or until he knew it was late enough that no one would wander into her room for a visit and would press her palm against his cheek and enjoy the warmth that radiated from it; a way for him to be sure that she was still alive and that she was healing. He knew that she was fine, that the doctors checked her over and that she was technically fine and that they will be taking her out of her induced a coma in a few days or so but he couldn’t help it. After seeing her being shot, being shot to save him and Clint and that kid, well it was terrifying and there was so much blood and it killed Pietro that there wasn’t anything he could do to help and so now he had to check every night to be sure she still breathed and was still on her way to recovery.

Pietro pulled Norah’s hand from his cheek and instead laid it gently on his knee that was only a few inches from her bedside and then opened the book that Natasha had given him not but fifteen minutes or less ago, “Natasha said that this…this Shakespeare is one of your favorite books, no, writers. Yes, that this Shakespeare is one of favorite writers. So I come and read to you.” He said to her as he flipped through the book until he was about ¾ of the way through and opened the book to whatever page he landed on. 

Looking at the worn pages, Pietro gave a wry smile when he saw writing in the margins, notes Norah had made. 

“Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war  
How to divide the conquest of thy sight.  
Mine eye my heart thy picture’s sight would bar,  
My heart mine eye the freedom of that right.  
My heart doth plead that thou in him dost lie,  
A coset never pierced with crystal eyes;  
But the defendant doth that plea deny,  
And says in him thy fair appearance lies.  
To ‘cide this title is impaneled   
A quest of thoughts, all tenants to the heart,  
And by their verdict is determined  
The clear eyes’ moiety and the dear heart’s part,  
As thus: mine eyes’ due us thy outward part,  
And my heart’s right, thy inward love of heart.”

For a good long while after that Pietro flipped through the book and read poem after poem after poem to Norah, though he didn’t understand much of what some of them were either trying to imply or were saying but nonetheless he still read them to her because Natasha said she enjoyed them. The things he does for a woman….the things he does to impress a woman even though she’s unconscious. He gave an amused grin at that thought and was about to flip through the book once again to find another poem to read to Norah when the door to her room suddenly opened and in sauntered Tony – quite arrogantly too – and Pepper.

The moment Tony saw Pietro sitting at Norah’s bedside he scowled darkly and crossed his arms across his chest in a threatening manner, trying to intimidate Pietro into leaving. “Leave.” He demanded of him. “It’s family time now.” He said to him and looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to get up and leave. 

At that Pietro just stayed where he was, with Norah’s one hand resting on his knee book in hand and looked up at Tony Stark with a raised brow and making sure that Stark knew he was unimpressed with him at the moment. Tony may be Norah’s dad in every way that matters but Pietro wasn’t about to leave, he…..he cares deeply about Norah and no amount of insults or dirty looks thrown his way by Tony will make him leave. Yes, he admits, that Tony and Pepper do deserve some alone time with Norah but that doesn’t mean he’s going to leave simply because Tony demands it and says it’s family time for him, Pepper and Norah. Tony is just trying to get rid of him and make him leave Norah’s side because he doesn’t like whatever is going on with Pietro and Norah. 

“Are you family?” Tony asked snidely as he stepped further into the room. “Nuh uh, you’re not so why don’t you use that little powers of yours and speed your way out of here and do something useful. Go on,” he urged and waved his hands at Pietro. “Shoo.” 

Pepper frowned at Tony when he said that to Pietro and for the fact that he was treating him as if he was the dirt beneath his shoes; she understood that Tony was protective of Norah and that he loved Norah as if she was his own blood and didn’t want her to get hurt but six days of this is getting a bit ridiculous even for her even temper when it came to Tony and his idiotic tendencies. Pepper liked Pietro and liked the relationship or soon to be relationship that he and Norah had and thought that both he and Norah deserved something good and some happiness in their lives, especially after the lives both of them lived thus far. Norah running away from home at the age of fifteen because her mother didn’t accept her being a Mutant, being hurt in some horrible way when making her way away from Minnesota and all the Mutant hate that she and others like her have received over the years, and Pietro losing his parents at such a young age from bombings, bombs that were sold by Tony who didn’t care who he sold to at that time in his life, having to live in a war torn country that is filled with discord and then being experimented on by Hydra just hoping that they’d be able to help their people and country. 

“Tony!” Pepper reprimanded with her hands on her hips as Tony looked back and glanced at her with a ‘what did I do’ sort of look on his face. “Seriously?” she asked rhetorically before stomping a few steps towards him, grabbing him quite hard by the ear earning a lot of ‘owes’ coming out of his mouth and then dragged him out of Norah’s room. “We’ll be back.” Pepper said as she caught the smile from Pietro who just nodded at her and turned his attention back to Norah. 

Once outside of the room and down the hallway a bit Pepper let go of Tony’s ear and turned to him quite angrily, her arms crossed. “What is wrong with you Tony?” she demanded him as she looked at him and saw him rubbing the ear she had grabbed none too gently and had dragged him out of the room with. 

“What?” Tony asked obliviously, thinking he didn’t do anything wrong. “I didn’t do anything.” He told her.  
At that Pepper rolled her eyes, “Tony. You’re treating Pietro as if he’s the enemy.” She pointed out to him and gave him a disapproving look.

“He is!” Tony said believing every word he just said. “That kid is the enemy, he was on Ultron’s side until we got to Seoul and then suddenly he was on our side, no questions asked and he suddenly had a thing for Norah. No, I don’t trust that.” He grumbled, a dark look forming across his face as he looked over at Norah’s door.  
“You’re being an asshole.” Pepper said to him bluntly, usually she wouldn’t say something like that to him and would instead leave it to Norah to call him an asshole or something along those lines but Tony needed to hear it. “You’re acting like this because you’re scared of what Pietro could represent to Norah, what he could mean to Norah in the not too far away future. You’re afraid that she’s going to be taken away from you, that you won’t matter anymore because Pietro is around.” She said as she inched closer and poked him hard in the chest while she was saying this until his back hit the wall opposite of Pepper.

“What?” Tony asked incredulously, his eyes widening. “No, of course not. What the-“ he started to say but was stopped by Pepper who glared at him.

“Don’t try and lie to me Tony.” Pepper said to him sternly. “I’ve been working for you for years and have been dating you for the last three of them – I know you.” She said and took a breath and slowly let it out before she looked into Tony’s light brown colored eyes. “I understand a bit of why you are acting like this, why you don’t like Pietro and are treating him like this and being an ass to him but honey,” she said as she slowly ran her fingers through his hair. “This is a bit much. Pietro genuinely cares for Norah; he cares for her so much and is fascinated by her. This…this is a good thing. Norah deserves something like this in her life, she deserves to have a person who cares for her because of her and not because of who her self-appointed father is. Pietro and Wanda will be able to understand Norah and what she feels when it comes to her power unlike the majority of us, they have powers like she does and will understand the frustration and fear that comes with having them at times. You love Norah just as much as I do and you need to trust her and if she chooses to be with Pietro and pursue a relationship with him, you need to accept that.” She told him.

“But-“ Tony began but Pepper slapped her hand over his mouth and shook her head at him.

“No, Tony.” Pepper commanded of him. “Accept it or at least accept the fact that Norah is an adult and has to make her own choices and mistakes.” She told him before she released his mouth and began to walk back towards Norah’s room. “Now are you coming or are you going to stand there like a weirdo?” she asked saucily and opened the door to Norah’s room and walked back inside. 

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~ 11 Days after Sokovia: Norah ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_

Waking up felt like a chore to Norah, sure, usually she was a bit slow at waking up especially when it was morning and all she wanted to do was stay under the covers for a while and read on her phone or look at Facebook or something but right now as she was attempting to wake up felt like a battle. But it wasn’t just the fact that it was hard to wake up and open her eyes – which she hasn’t done as of yet – but the pain she was feeling at the moment wasn’t all that pleasant either. Her chest hurt like a bitch, there was no getting around that and felt as if it had been rammed by a truck like a semi or something along those lines, her side hurt, her neck hurt and her right thigh as well. It was trying for her to think about what had happened, what she had done or tried to do that resulted in all of those places hurting to badly but at the moment her mind seemed to not be working and all she could think of was small flashes of what had happened. Pietro. Clint. A boy. Gunshots. 

Finally, with great effort, Norah managed to pull her eyes open and look around at her surroundings and try and figure out where she was. The last thing she remembered as being carried onto one of the transportation ships/life boats by Pietro and heading towards the Helicarrier but she lost consciousness apparently before they had a chance to get to the lifeboats. Letting her eyes adjust for a moment Norah looked around the room which was illuminated by a single lamp near the door which didn’t give much light to the dark room and saw that digital clock on the wall read three a.m. Way too early to be awake, at least in Norah’s opinion it is. 

Norah noticed a chair near her bed and one that was pushed up against the wall near the foot of her bed and in those chairs were Wanda and Pietro, Pietro sitting in the one directly beside her bed and Wanda in the other. Looking at Pietro’s sleeping form Norah couldn’t help but give a soft smile, he was deep asleep and had his head thrown back and was snoring lightly in sleep. Wanda was the opposite of her brother at the moment, she wasn’t asleep at all but was instead reading a book in her corner next to the lamp that was doing a horrible job at giving light to the room – Tony needed to invest in better lamps instead of stupid modern looking one’s that didn’t even do their job.

“Wanda.” Norah said hoarsely and very quietly, her voice hurting from disuse and probably from being unconscious for who knows how long. “Wanda?” she tried again, a bit louder this time, startling the female Sokovian. 

Looking up from her book Wanda saw that Norah’s eyes were open and that she was looking directly at her, a small pain filled smile gracing her features. “Norah.” She whispered, a wide smile spreading across her face and hurried over to the opposite side of the bed then what her brother was on, not wanting to wake him from the sleep he so desperately needed, he hasn’t been able to sleep much since Norah got injured. “You have finally woke.” She said excitedly as she gently took Norah’s hand into hers, squeezing it thankfully. “We’ve been worried, Pietro and Tony especially.”

Hearing that Norah groaned, “Oh god, tell me they haven’t been fighting like cats and dogs since I…well since I’ve been asleep or whatever.” She said to her and attempted to sit up a bit but before she was able to Wanda pushed her back down gently. 

“You must stay lying down,” Wanda advised her and then looked at her brother and then Norah again. “They were able to be civil eventually, but over the last few days Tony has gotten better and seems to almost like Pietro and his sarcasm.” She said with a shrug before looking at Norah seriously. “How are you feeling? Do you remember what had happened?” she questioned.

At that Norah gave a tight smile, her mind working much better than when she first woke up and the bandages that were quite obviously covering certain parts of her body being a big clue as to what happened. “I….I was shot.”


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I've been gone for so long, life happens at times apparently. Also, if there's anything in the story that you would like to see let me know and I'll see if I can make it work with what I have planned!

“I…I was shot.” Norah said matter-of-factly to Wanda who was sitting beside where she laid on the rather large medical bed. 

No matter how you looked at it there was no getting around the fact nor the vivid memories that Norah had been shot while in Sokovia, that she had been shot and that it was Ultron who had done it. One moment she had Blinked herself from wherever she had been standing and over to where Clint, the kid Clint was bringing to one of the lifeboats and where Pietro was and then the next moment she Blinked them to somewhere that was out of the way of the path that Ultron and the quinjet were in but before she had the chance to Blink the four of them away she felt an intense burning sensation but couldn’t pinpoint the exact location on her body where it was coming from, all she knew was that it hurt but she didn’t have time to think about it at the moment, she needed to get the four of them out of the imminent danger that they were in. It was only after Norah had saved Pietro, Clint and the kid and had tried to take a few steps that she realized that something as most definitely and indisputably wrong with her – collapsing to the ground was a big hint too, and the blood. 

Before that moment Norah had never really feared for her life or thought about all of the things she would lose if she were to die, but right then and there she had feared for her life and lamented what she would miss and wouldn’t get to do again. She wondered if she would ever get to see her dad again – Tony – or Pepper, or have a girls night with Pepper and Natasha….and sometimes joined by Clint, or argue with Steve about the fact that he acted like an overprotective brother at times and treated her like some silly woman from the 1940’s while he opened doors for her and pushed her chair in as well (It was cute in the beginning). But what had flashed through her mind the most vividly was the fact that she’d never be able to reconnect with her older sister Niki, that she’d never have a chance to get to know Pietro and Wanda better and that she’d never have a chance to kiss Pietro again. 

Wanda nodded at Norah as she took one of the blonde haired girl’s hands within both of hers and squeezed gently, silently showing Norah that she was there for her. “Yes.” She said with a small nod and then looked at Norah in concern, getting shot is not something that a person can take lightly. “You were shot in Sokovia. Do you remember what happened?” she questioned softly, watching Norah like a hawk in case she had a sudden adverse reaction to waking up or to trying to remember everything that had happened. 

Wanda knew what had happened, both Pietro and Clint had told her and the rest of the Avengers what had happened to Norah and that Norah knew she had been shot but she had also been through a traumatic experience and a trying week and sometimes people forgot things that had happened to them after they experience something so traumatic. Even the doctors that had been working on Norah weren’t certain if she would remember the fight with Ultron in Sokovia but had told them all that with time it would all come back to her and that if she needed it that she could go to therapy to help deal with the memories and nightmares that she may end up having. Wanda was more than willing to be there for Norah; to support her, to talk to her, to treat her as normal as possible, to be her friend, as was Pietro. Neer in her twenty-three years has Wanda ever been shot before but she has seen others who were, some who were older than Norah and some that were much younger than Norah was now. Some people who were shot accepted what had happened and dealt with it accordingly, and some….well some would have a break down about what happened and would wonder why it happened, why it happened to them of all people and would want to blame someone or something for it even if they weren’t at fault. Wanda just hoped that Norah would be the first sort of people – the ones who accept it and deal with it the best they can.

Closing her eyes tightly, Norah tried to sort through her erratic memories that were swirling around in her mind at the moment and did her best to make sense of everything and try and piece together what exactly had happened in Sokovia. “Ultron.” Norah said suddenly as she slowly opened her eyes and looked into the blue colored eyes of Wanda that mirrored the one’s of her brother. “Ultron shot me.” She said as she gazed at Pietro who was still dead asleep in his chair, the back of his head inches from her and within reach of her fingertips if she wished to touch him. “I…I Blinked over to where Clint, Pietro and that kid were, I saw Ultron heading straight for them and shooting at them from the quinjet. I couldn’t, god, I couldn’t let them get shot especially the kid who couldn’t have been more than eight or nine years old. So I made a choice.” Norah said to Wanda, her brow furrowing a bit at trying to remember some parts of what had happened to her that led her to being in the medical bed that she was laying in at the moment. “I Blinked over to them and grabbed Clint and Pietro by their shoulders and Blinked them, the kid and myself out of danger but I guess I wasn’t fast enough. I…I got shot. I don’t remember how many times but I know it was at least twice. I don’t remember if Pietro or Clint or even the kid was shot or not, I was in so much pain and exhausted from everything. From running, from barely getting any sleep, from using to much of my powers….just everything made me tired and then getting shot, well that certainly didn’t help things.”

At that Wanda nodded, “That is what Pietro and Clint told, they say very similar story.” She told her softly, a soft smile on her face at the fact that Norah had finally woken and no longer would have to see her brother being a subdued version of himself and acting like a hermit.

For a moment the two females lapsed into silence, Wanda thankful that Norah woke up after being unconscious for eleven days, nine of which she was in a medically induced a coma and Norah, well Norah was thankful to be awake and a live even if it was a bit painful on her part but at least she wasn’t dead and personally she saw that as a win. Norah really wasn’t fond of that whole dying and dead situation; just not her style. 

Finally though, Norah broke the silence that had settled between the two. “Please tell me we finally got rid of that bastard.” She spit out and then looked up into Wanda’s eyes with a serious look in her eye, a fire within her eyes waiting to hear whether or not they still had a murder crazy robot needing to be killed. “I really am too tired to do this whole week on repeat until we kill the guy, so please, please tell me we killed Ultron.” She begged Wanda tiredly as she slipped her hand from being encased by Wanda’s and rubbed the right side of her temple, for sleeping for so long she sure had a hell of a head ache. 

At that Wanda gave a half smile and shook her head at Norah, “Do not worry, we defeated Ultron, we do not need worry anymore.” She told her simply.

“Thank the gods,” Norah said with a heavy sigh of relief and then looked fondly at Pietro who was lying his head near her hips and then at Wanda. “Are you okay? Pietro? The other’s haven’t been treating you badly have they?” she demanded, a tight lipped expression on her face at the thought of her newly made friends and whatever Pietro was to her being treated badly. “I can kick their ass if you want, or just because.” She said with a sly smirk on her face, a sign that she was still the same even after going through the whole getting shot thing and being unconscious for almost two weeks.

Hearing that made Wanda’s heart soar; neither she nor Norah have known each other for all that long but Norah had threatened her friends and family if they had mistreated Wanda in any way and that Wanda thankful that things had happened as they did because otherwise she and Pietro would have never met Norah. Wanda hoped that in time, both she and Norah could grow to be close friends and that she would finally have that female friend that she had always hoped for – Pietro simply didn’t measure up to having a female friend and he got overprotective whenever a boy showed interest in her or whenever she talked about a boy she found attractive. 

“No, no there is no need for that.” Wanda told her with an amused smile on her face at Norah’s antics, happy that Norah seemed to be acting like usual and didn’t seem to be all that affected by the fact that she had been shot. “They have been very friendly. They show me through the city, show Statue of Liberty, the Museum of Natural History and Central Park. I ate a….hot dog?” she questioned uncertainly as she tried to remember the new food that she had tried when she had gone sightseeing with Steve and Natasha. While living in Sokovia neither Wanda or Pietro really had a chance to try different foods. “Yes, hot dog from food stand. I’ve never tasted anything like it. I thought it would be like sausage or Salami but it wasn’t. I loved it.” Wanda said with a wide grin on her face from remembering the experience but then frowned, she should not talking and gossiping like this with Norah who had only just woken up not even twenty minutes ago, Wanda should get one of the doctors and let them know that Norah woke up. 

Norah nodded smiled at that, “Yeah, food stand hotdogs are the best.” She said to her and wished that she could have one of those right now, but she got the feeling that neither Wanda, Pietro or any of the others would authorize her gallivanting into the streets of New York City simply to get a hotdog from a street vendor. “Never trust the chili dogs though, never ever.” She said to Wanda with a dead serious tone of voice as she looked her in the eyes. “You’ll regret it, trust me.” She said gravely and gave an involuntary shiver at that horrible memory, she couldn’t bear to eat or even look at chili or hot dogs for at least three months straight.

Norah couldn’t even begin to describe how thankful she was at the moment, how thankful she was for the fact that she was still alive and kicking an able to be her sarcastic and sassy self – okay, technically she was confined to a bed at the moment and covered in bandages and in a hell of a lot of pain but it was better than being dead as a doornail. Being alive meant that Norah could try and reconnect with her sister who she had left a somewhat short message for on her answering machine before she and everyone else had headed to Sokovia to fight Ultron, hopefully now that she was awake and alive she could call Niki and maybe…..maybe go and see her once she gets healed up enough. One thing Norah missed about having a sister was the relationship that she had with Niki, she missed staying up late and having a girls night which her sister did without complaint even though Norah was seven years younger than her, she also missed being able to talk to her sister about their mother when she was getting on her nerves or when Norah thought she was overreacting and god, he just missed having a sibling. And even though Niki had originally sided with their mother on the whole Mutant thing, Norah missed her sister and wanted to see her again and hoped to all the gods that these years of being separated changed Niki’s mind, made her see Mutant’s as they really were – people not things to be feared. 

Norah wondered if Niki had a family of her own now, and she kinda hoped that she did have one. A nice husband and a kid or two that Norah could spoil rotten since she’s missed out on so many years or something like that and maybe even a dog or something. When she had been younger Norah had always wanted what every girl wanted; prince charming to come into her life and sweep her off of her feet and take her away to a better life or some shit like that. But the whole being a Mutant thing pushed those fantasies right out of the window, it would be hard to find a prince charming while being a Mutant which most of society feared because a few of them were bad apples and really, finding prince charming was a bit overrated and over romanticized. Norah would take an attractive Sokovian with silver/blonde hair over prince charming any day of the week. 

“When Pietro first told me of you – after you met in woods – and said that you were like us, different. I brushed it off, I did not think we see you again after that and forgot about you. But then we saw you again, in South Africa.” Wanda started to say quietly to Norah, doing her best to keep quiet so to not wake her slumbering brother up who has been doing his damndest to stay awake. “He talked of you after South Africa, I saw his obsession and how drawn he was to you and I tell him stay away, say that you are not good. I said that he didn’t need to get mixed up with you, you were with the Avengers and we were with Ultron. I thought he was fascinated because of what you could do, because you were different like us.” Wanda admitted as she looked away from her brother’s sleeping form and to Norah who was gazing at her with curiosity, wondering what exactly Wanda was getting at or what she was trying to tell her. “I did not like you or the interest that Pietro had for you, I thought it distract him from what we needed to do. But then,” she said with a pause and looked at Norah with a soft smile on her face and a lighter tone of voice. “Then I changed mind, I saw into your mind and saw what happened to you in St. Louis.” She said and noticed Norah shrink back involuntarily but continued on with what she was saying. “I saw your family, the Mutant school you went to, the friends you had there. I saw the home you had in Sweden and I saw SHIELD finding you in Romania and offering to help. I saw it all when I was messing with your mind and….and I saw what you thought of Pietro.” 

Looking at Wanda curiously Norah cocked her head to the side a bit as she stared at the brown haired girl and wondered why she was telling her all of this and for a moment panicked and wondered if she was about to use her power on her and threaten her to either stay away from her brother or to not hurt him. Her common sense came back to her soon after that thought strayed into her mind, Wanda had been amused by both Norah and Pietro’s relationship or whatever it was that they were doing and seemed to encourage it even so it was unlikely that she would try and threaten or hurt her. Also, Norah really hoped that Wanda hadn’t seen the more rated R thoughts she had about Pietro. 

“You two have only know each other for short time but you were drawn to him; to his arrogance, to his playfulness, to his person in general and felt and interest to him the moment you two started bantering in the forest of Sokovia. And he was fascinated by you the moment you punched him in face and chased after him without a thought to your safety, you ran after him without hesitation because you wanted to do what is right, because you wanted to help your friends. You were not afraid to face problems or danger head on, you are stubborn and fierce….like a bull.” Wanda said to her and thought that Moj mali bik which Pietro often called Norah fondly fit her perfectly now that she knew Norah a bit better. “It has always been just Pietro and I since our parents died when we were younger, I have never trusted anyone much and had never trusted anyone that Pietro had even though about dating – he didn’t date often, he always say to me ‘Wanda, you are most important female in my life. I do not have time for silly girls’. You though, I see in eyes that you are trustworthy and genuinely care for my brother. I can see you aren’t pretending to get something from him be it sex or money, you are not doing this to pass time but you care for him. You are good for Pietro and he is good for you, at least that is what Pepper and Natasha say.” She told Norah sincerely, hoping that whatever is happening between her brother and Norah became something long term and serious. “I hope you know that it is not just Pietro who cares, he may care in different way but I care as well and hope to consider you friend one day.”

For a moment Norah said nothing in response to what Wanda had just said and revealed to her, Wanda had just been so open and honest with Norah and told her what she had thought of her at first and what she thought of the relationship her brother and Norah had. It was nice, more than nice even, to hear that Wanda wanted to consider Norah her friend which Norah was more than willing to do since she had too few female friends – basically just Natasha and Kitty and her friend Francheska ‘Frankie’ from University who had moved overseas for work six months ago. So Wanda wanting and hoping to be friends with Norah was the highlight of everything that Wanda had just told her. 

“Honey,” Norah said in a teasing tone of voice as she looked at Wanda with a playful smirk on her face. “Once I get my claws in you there’s no going back, we’re friends now and nothing can change that fact.” She told her which made Wanda give a grin, teeth showing and all. “Unless of course you eat the last of my Chocolate Chip Mint Ice Cream, we’d have a problem if that happened.” She said and leveled Wanda with a death stare that meant certain death if she ever dared to do what Norah just said.

At that Wanda couldn’t help but give a giggle that was reminiscent of a teenage girl, “I will not eat your chocolate chip mint ice cream as you call it, though I have never eaten it before and it does sound interesting. What does it taste like?” she questioned as she looked at Norah expectantly, waiting to hear her answer. 

Norah looked at Wanda unblinking, barely able to comprehend the fact that she’s never had the chance or had the opportunity to taste chocolate chip mint ice cream because of where she and Pietro had lived and grown up and because of how they had grown up – poor and without much of a chance to better their lives, at least not until Hydra had come around and even then they didn’t better their lives, instead they just gained powers.

“I guess I have my work cut out for me, hmm?” Norah asked rhetorically to Wanda who looked at her in confusion. “I’m going to introduce you and Pietro and probably Vision to Pop Culture, to Meme’s, to Snapchat and Facebook, and to all sorts of different food and whatnot. Tony has an obsession with Shwarma but I don’t see what the big deal is, but Chinese and Thai food, god, it’s mouthwatering. Oh!” she said suddenly, excitement in her eyes. “Banana splits, I’m so going to introduce you two to that and pizza and really bad TV shows. But on top of the list is Chocolate Chip Mint Ice Cream, FYI.” She told her with determination in her voice and a serious look in her eye that made Wanda a bit cautious about what she may be getting herself into whether it willingly or unwillingly. 

Turning her dark brown eyes from Wanda and instead towards Pietro’s sleeping form Norah couldn’t help but give a soft smile at the man who she had somehow found during this turbulent week or so while dealing with Ultron and him trying to kill every living human being, a man who she tried to tell herself to not get involved with or even think about how attractive and cute he was but failed in doing so within five minutes after telling herself that. Shaking her head at Pietro and how uncomfortable he looked sleeping in the chair beside her bed Norah slowly reached out a hand towards him, her left hand which was closest to him, and gently began to run her fingers through his silver/blonde colored hair relishing in the fact that she was able to touch him and that he was in fact there and that this wasn’t some sort of sick and twisted dream that her drug induced mind came up with. 

Slowly and with a feather light touch, Norah moved her fingers from his hair and slowly moved them down the side of his face where she could feel more than just a bit of stubble – obviously he hasn’t really taken the time to shave since arriving at the tower – and then they ghosted over his cheek, slowly brushed against his bottom lip and then finally she cupped one side of his face with her hand and caressed his cheek with her thumb. Slowly Pietro began to wake from his sleep and blinked his eyes rapidly for a moment before his blue colored eyes focused on Norah, furrowing his brows for a moment as he tried to comprehend what he was seeing his eyes widened when he realized what he was seeing and before Norah could even utter a word he had gotten up and pulled his chair as close to her bedside as he possibly could and grasped her hand within his own.

“Norah-“ Pietro began to say but before he could say much more than his name he was interrupted by Norah.  
Norah couldn’t help herself, she really couldn’t and so the moment Pietro had uttered her name with his accent she had sat up a bit painfully and ignored Wanda hissing her name, trying to scold her for sitting up when she should be laying down and instead grasped Pietro by the shirt he was wearing and pulled him to her and kissed him quite forcefully. Reaching up with one hand Norah grasped at the hair that was at the back of his neck as her other hand steadied her on the bed so that she didn’t teeter to one side or the other, meanwhile Pietro framed both sides of Norah’s face with his larger hands and returned the kiss just as forcefully and passionately. 

It’s been eleven days since he had last seen Norah awake and since he had last spoken to Norah and it wasn’t exactly the best memory; he had been frightened that she would bleed out and die before he had a chance to get her to the Helicarrier so that she could get patched up and fixed from the numerous bullet wounds that had entered her body because she decided to save him, Clint and the kid from being shot. He was thankful that he still lived and that he hadn’t died in Sokovia but Norah scared him to death, he had only just found her and refused to lose her simply because she was doing what she thought was right and ended up getting shot because of it. 

Pietro kissed Norah at a much slower and softer pace after the first few initial kisses after realizing that she was finally awake, “You took your time moj mali bik. I thought you became sleeping beauty while sleeping and that why you were taking so long.” He said to her teasingly as he pressed his forehead against hers and let out a relieved sigh at the fact that she was finally awake, a good sign that her body had recovered well and had healed up enough to do so without being in a medically induced a coma. 

At that Norah scoffed, “I’m the farthest thing from Sleeping Beauty that you will ever meet.” She told him with a soft smile on her face as she laid her hand on the back of Pietro’s neck, keeping him in place. 

“I think different.” Pietro said to her with a small chuckle and then inhaled deeply, taking in the earthy smell of Norah and then twitched his nose a bit when some of her curly hair brushed up against his nose uncomfortably. “I have missed you, you slept and slept for much too long.” He said to her. “I am glad you did not die.” 

“Me too,” Norah said as she maneuvered her head from being pressed against Pietro’s until it lay against his shoulder. “I didn’t want to die, and besides,” she said as she pulled away briefly to look up into his thankful eyes. “I made you a promise and I wasn’t about to break that promise simply because I was shot however many times and nearly died.”

Hearing that Pietro chuckled softly and pressed a kiss to her temple, something which he has missed desperately since she had been unconscious and couldn’t wait to do once they had the privacy to do so. “Oh, moj mali bik how I have missed you.” He said to her and closed his eyes for a moment to enjoy the feeling of having Norah so close to him once again and able to feel the heat of her skin against his hand once again.

Wanda was quiet during this exchange and knew that the two of them needed this, needed to reconnect and find out for themselves that one and another were fine as could be. But she did know that Norah definitely should not be sitting up at the moment and that they needed to let the others, or at least the doctors know that she was awake finally. They would want to check her out themselves and be absolutely certain she was okay and make sure that she wasn’t in too much pain and to check on her healing wounds as well. 

“Norah,” Wanda said gaining both her brother’s and Norah’s attention, both looking at her a bit sheepishly for forgetting that she was there in the room with them. “You must lay down, you are not completely healed yet. You must rest.” She said to her sternly, eyes narrowing at the stubborn American. 

Pietro could have hit himself for not realizing that even though she had woken from a coma that she would not be healed up completely, “She is right, you must rest so your wounds heal faster.” He said to her and then slowly eased her back down on her back and pushed against her uninjured shoulder/neck area and gave her a look. “Do not try to move.”

At that Norah raised a brow and tried to cross her arms from her laying down position but soon hissed in pain when she did so and pulled back the shirt she was wearing that tied on the side and saw a bandage over her chest, having a wound there was not a good thing or at least from what she has seen in movies and read in books. 

“I told you to not move, silly stubborn American.” Pietro said as he settled back down in his chair beside Norah’s bed and then looked at Wanda. “We should let others know, yes?” he questioned as he reached forward and grasped Norah’s hand and slowly caressed the top of her hand with his thumb. 

Wanda nodded at her brother, “Friday?” she questioned to the room which earned a raised brow from Norah wondering who the hell Friday was. 

An Irish lilting voice answered, “Yes Wanda?” a voice responded.

“Can you get doctors and say that Norah has woken up, and get Tony and Pepper.” Wand responded to the voice politely and then gave a pointed look to Norah when she tried to protests that statement.

“Certainly.” The voice Friday said to Wanda.

Looking between Pietro and Wanda, Norah looked at the two expectantly. “So, am I guessing right when I say that that must be the new Jarvis?” she questioned curiously. 

It was Wanda who answered her, “Yes, Tony…..installed,” she said searching for the right English word. “Her into the building a day or two after we arrived here.” 

Closing her eyes for a moment Norah took a deep breath and then grimaced a bit at the pain that blossomed in her chest from that action, it felt as if her chest was being pulled a part and not in the same way as when she Blinked from one place to another. Blinking was more of an uncomfortable sensation rather than a painful one like taking deep breaths was for her. 

Opening her eyes once again Norah saw both Pietro and Wanda looking at her in curiosity and concern, she must have really worried everyone if they were looking at her like that and was dreading to see how Pepper and Tony were going to react when they see that she was awake. “How long was I out for?” 

“Eleven days.” Wanda told her bluntly.

Hearing that Norah’s eyes widened a bit in shock, she knew she had been shot a few times, how many times she wasn’t exactly sure but she knew it was enough times that she would be out for at least a couple days but she never thought that it would be for almost two weeks and she wondered what sort of wounds she exactly had that resulted in her being unconscious for that long and how serious they were. She wondered if her sister was worried about her after the phone call she had left on her answering machine, it’s been eleven days since she placed it and obviously hasn’t been able to call her back. Niki probably thought she was dead; hopefully she would be able to call her soon and let her know that she wasn’t dead or anything but just majorly injured.  
Before Norah had a chance to questioned why she was out for so long the doors suddenly burst open and in strode Tony who was wearing some lounging pants and a Black Sabbath band shirt, in after him was Pepper who was dressed similarly except instead of a band shirt it was one of Tony’s expensive button up shirts and then in after them was three Asian doctors one of whom Norah recognized as Hellen Cho. 

“Norah!”

“Blinker!”

It was obvious who said what, only Tony called her Blinker really. It took but moments for Tony and Pepper both to reach her bedside which Pietro seemed to have disappeared from, looking around the room she saw that he was standing with Wanda by the door of her room letting Pepper and Tony have time with her. As much as she wanted to spend more time with Pietro, she also wanted to spend time with her self-appointed father and Pepper who were her family. 

“Oh Norah,” Pepper said the moment she sat down in a chair and gently caressed the side of Norah’s face. “Thank god you’re awake and okay.” She said to her and quickly pressed a kiss to Norah’s cheek. 

“Yeah Blinker,” Tony said as he looked down at Norah with a playful grin to hide the worry and pain he’s been in since she’s bene unconscious but it was obvious to those closest to him what he was feeling. “Sure took your sweet ass time waking up, I was starting to consider poking you and hunting down your violin to play badly to you to see if you would wake up.” 

Hearing that Norah scowled up at her father, “Don’t you dare go near my violin or I’ll cut your arm off.” She growled at him with narrowed eyes, she didn’t trust Tony to not fuck her violin up in some sort of fashion.

Tony just laughed at Norah’s half-hearted threat and gave a genuine sigh of relief, he knew that she was going to be fine before and that the doctors had told him repeatedly that they just needed time before they took her out of a coma but seeing is believing and seeing Norah awake really solidified the fact that she was okay and was going to heal up perfectly fine other than a few scars. 

Norah tried to not break down and tried to not overreact like a teenage girl but she remembers everything that she had been feeling when she had decided to Blink herself to save Clint, Pietro and that kid and one of those thoughts were that she would never be able to see Tony or Pepper again. She knew that there was going to be a big chance that she may die from what she was doing and did it anyways and it killed her that she might not be able to see her family again – her Avenger family. 

“D..dad.” Norah stuttered a bit and did her best to reel in her tears but was failing quite miserably. “I, god…I just-“ she said but cut herself off as her voice broke more and more as she talked.

Both Pietro and Wanda seeing this knew that it was time for them to leave and let Norah and Pepper and Tony have some family time now that Norah was finally awake, Pietro didn’t want to leave Norah’s side now that she was finally awake but he knew she deserved to be left alone with the man who she saw as a father and the woman who was like a sister/mother to her. So they gained Pepper’s attention and mouthed they were giving them some alone time and then Pietro sped himself and Wanda out of the room and back to the level where the common room/ kitchen was located at.

Tony saw the twins leave out of the corner of his eye but he was more concerned with Norah at the moment, “Oh Norah.” He said softly as he scooted himself onto the bed and leant down and gently hugged her and let her grasp at his shirt in an almost desperate fashion and cry into his shoulder. “You’re okay now kid, you’re okay. I’m here, Pepper is here and everyone else is still here and okay with only minor injuries. Okay.” He said to her as he gently brushed his hand down her head and let her have a good cry, something she probably needs after everything that happened. “Ultron is dead and isn’t gonna be bothering us anymore. Okay?” he said to her as he pulled back a bit and looked into Norah’s eyes searchingly, making sure that she was comprehending what he was saying and understood that none of them were in danger anymore.

Hearing the reassurance in his voice Norah took a few calming breaths but not too deep so to not cause herself any pain and nodded at what Tony said to her, “Okay.” She said softly but still kept her hands firmly in place, clutching onto his black band shirt. 

“Oh,” Tony said as he sat back up and looked down at Norah’s face that had a few tears running down it and brushed them away as best he could. “Once you’re healed up enough I’m so going to yell at you for doing something so stupid. From now on I’d prefer you to not be shot, I’d rather not have an almost heart attack again. For future reference.” 

When he said that Norah gave a small laugh, “I’ll do my best.” She said to him and gave him a sassy look. “No promises though.” 

“No, there will be no more missions and no more getting shot Eleanorah.” Pepper said authoritatively to Norah, a look of worry, anger and determination on her face as she said this, her arms crossed as well.

Seeing Pepper’s face Norah pursed her lips and nodded, even though she sincerely doubted that she wouldn’t ever go on another mission again but just not all that often. “Okay.” She said to her simply, her voice a bit higher than usual making Pepper’s eyes narrow suspiciously. 

Hellen Cho and her team stood near one of the far wall’s and decided that Norah, Tony and Pepper had had enough time to reconnect with one and another and decided that it was time to get on with things.

“Tony, Pepper I need you two to give us some room to work.” Hellen said as she looked at the two who both reluctantly did as Hellen had asked of them. “Thank you.” She said with a nod and then turned to her two co-workers/co-doctors and started to speak to them in Korean, giving orders and telling them what needed to be done first. “Well, let’s check out those wounds of yours.” 

~_~_~_~_~_~_~.~_~_~_~_~_~_~.~_~_~_~_~_~.~_~_~_~_~_~.~_~_~_~_~_~

Finally after forty minutes of embarrassment and pain – she wasn’t all that fond of having her shirt opened up or pants pulled down in front of Tony for Hellen to look at her wounds – and after doing a few breathing exercises and range of motion exercises Hellen Cho had deemed her on her way to healing up quite well but not yet well enough to leave the medical room which she has been stuck in for eleven days. All Norah wanted was to be back in her own room, in her own bed, in her own clothes and then wanted to sleep for at least a day and not be cooped up in the Medical Wing of Stark Towers. 

At the moment Norah was alone in her room with Hellen Cho who was administering some medicine for the pain that Norah was feeling at the moment; Tony and Pepper had gone to get her some food and Pepper had told her that Pietro and Wanda had left to give her some privacy with her family which she thought was sweet and was also disappointed at the same time but she was more than certain she would be seeing Pietro soon. 

“Norah,” Hellen said as she finished up with the medicine that was hooked up to an IV into Norah’s arm. “I sent the cradle back to Seoul to be repaired when I first arrived here but if you want I can have it sent back and use it to heal you the rest of the way up so that you don’t have to wait and so that you don’t have any physical scars from what happened.” She suggested to the younger blonde haired girl.

It was a nice offer, a very nice and tempting offer and one that Tony, Pietro and all of the others would probably want her to take and though Norah knew that the cradle was a good invention when not used for dark purposes she simply couldn’t do it. She couldn’t do it because of Utlron and all that happened because of him and she also thought that the scars were a good thing as odd as that sounded, the scars that Norah now carried from her ordeal would remind her of what happened and what she had been willing to sacrifice in order to save Pietro and Clint and that kid. It shows that she really could be one of the Avengers if she truly wished to. 

“No.” Norah said simply, shaking her head at the offer. “Thank you, but no.” she told her.

Hellen had looked at Norah oddly when she had said no, “No?” she questioned, wanting to be certain she had said and meant that.

“No.” Norah responded with a definite tone. “I don’t want to be healed by it, I know what it does and that Ultron had used it for something bad but I…I can’t. I’m okay with having scars. It’s okay.” She said to her with a small smile on her face to show Hellen she really wasn’t bothered by the scars she had received. 

“If you change your mind-“ Hellen started to say but Norah interrupted her.

“I won’t.” Norah said with conviction.


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's kinda short and a bit of a filler, but I hope you like it.

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~ Tony ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

It’s been a day since Norah had woken up from her medically induced a coma, a day since Tony and Pepper both were able to give sigh’s of relief at the fact that Norah was finally awake after a grueling eleven day wait and were finally able to speak to her and see her looking genuinely fine considering the circumstances and injuries she had acquired from the fight with Ultron. The moment Norah had finally woke up almost brought Tony to tears; he knows that the doctors had told him and Pepper that she was okay and would recover from her injuries with nothing but a few scars to show what had happened to her but it was hard to believe when the person you love and care for was laid up in a hospital bed and unable to talk to you and give confirmation that they really were okay. 

For most of yesterday Tony and Pepper had spent their time in Norah’s room talking, watching Netflix on the TV that was in the medical room and eating greasy food since Norah was injured and everything – Pepper tried to protest but the moment Norah sent her big brown eyed pupped dog look to her Pepper had caved and reluctantly agreed, unable to say no since she had only just come out of a coma. Tony had asked Friday to keep the other’s away, said that he and Pepper wanted to spend some one on one time with Norah and that in a day or two would be a better time for them to come visit her. Though, he knew without a doubt that Pietro and Wanda would more than likely come back and see Norah once he and Pepper had left, he scowled at that but knew that he really couldn’t stop it from happening. The kid was fast after all. 

At the moment Tony was pacing back and forth in his lab – the lab where he and Bruce had created Ultron – and was looking at a stack of papers that he had printed out three years ago when he had first met Norah, papers that contained the names, numbers and addresses of Norah’s family in Minnesota. Her mother’s, her father’s and her sister’s; Tony was uncertain of what to do at the moment and was wondering if he should call them and let them know what happened to Norah and tell them that she had been unconscious for eleven days but was now awake and on the road to recovery or if she should leave it alone and let Norah do it if she wanted to. But….but Tony thought about how he felt when he found out Norah had been shot and that they weren’t sure if she would make it out of surgery, when Norah had been in surgery for those hours Tony had felt anger, hatred, he felt as if a piece of his heart had been ripped out of his chest, he felt true fear, he felt debilitating emotional distress and he didn’t know what to do or what to say or which feeling to go with during those hours and so he had stayed quiet and just waited. 

Tony knew everything there was to know about Norah’s family, about what her mother had said to her when she found out about Norah’s powers and how she had wanted to take her to a doctor to get ‘fixed’ from her powers, how she had hated Mutants because of what she saw in the Media, and he knew about Norah’s absentee father and the alcoholism and drug dealing he did throughout her childhood and usually right in front of Norah and her sister. He also knew about Norah’s sister Niki, about how much Norah loved her and missed her, how close Norah and her sister had been before shit him the fan and he also knew how much Norah missed having a sibling around to talk to and laugh with. 

So with that thought in mind Tony decided to call Norah’s sister, after all it had been Norah’s mother that had reacted so badly to finding out that Norah was a Mutant rather than her sister and hoped that this sister of hers hadn’t been brainwashed by their mother and would want to see and talk to Norah after being separated for almost eight years. If this sister of Norah’s was willing to come out to New York to see her than he would fly her, her family and Norah’s mother too if the mother was willing to come out and he would reluctantly agree to Norah’s father coming too, he wouldn’t like it but he would do it because it was what was right. At that thought Tony gave a sarcastic scoff, look at him acting like the Capsicle and doing what’s right and everything, Steve would be so proud. 

“Hello.” A feminine voice said through the cell phone Tony was holding to his ear at the moment as he looked at the dark skyline of New York City.

“Uh, hi.” Tony said a bit uncertain as to what he was supposed to say to his pseudo-daughter’s sister who his daughter hasn’t talked to in years. “Is this Niki? Niki Paaverud, sister to Norah?” he questioned.

Over the line Tony could hear a sharp intake of breath, obviously Niki, who he assumed answered the phone, was shocked at hearing about her sister after so many years. “Yes. Is she okay? Did something happen to her? She…she’s not dead is she?” the woman asked frantically which confused Tony, why in the hell would she ask questions like that.

“What?” Tony asked, furrowing his brows at the phone. “Why would you ask something like that?” he asked her bluntly.

“Norah, she…she uh called me almost two weeks ago and said that she was going somewhere, that she was going to be doing something dangerous to save her friends and family, to….to save the world from someone or something really bad.” Niki admitted over the line of the phone. “I didn’t get to talk to her but she left the message on my answering machine, I….I thought she would have called back by now but I never got a phone call or anything. She…she said there was a chance she might die and well, I thought after nothing in almost a week that she had died.” She said solemnly. “She’s dead, isn’t she.”

Hearing Niki say that she had been left a message on her phone from Norah shocked Tony, he knew that his daughter had missed her sister and that there had been times in the last three years or so that she had wanted to call her sister but every time Tony had offered her the phone number to call her Norah had refused, a butter tone to her voice and usually either stomped or Blinked away. Tony decided that calling Niki was a good idea.

“No,” Tony said, easing Niki’s mind from the fear and sadness that she’s probably been feeling for however many days that she’s been thinking that Norah was dead. “No, Norah’s alive.” He said with feeling. “Norah is alive but she was badly injured during the battle we had been in, she’ll heal though.” He told her.

The moment Tony had said that he could hear a relieved breath of air through the line, “Thank god,” Niki said to him and breathed in for a few moments. “If she’s fine why didn’t she call me or try and contact me in some sort of way. I’ve been going out of my mind; I mean after almost eight years of being away from her and after searching for her for almost six years with no results I finally get contact from her and then nothing. What the hell happened, why didn’t she contact me? What happened to her? What sort of-“

“She was in a medically induced a coma for a while.” Tony interrupted before the woman could fire off more questions at him. “She was shot five times, the most life threatening one had gone through her lung. The doctors decided to put her in a coma so that he body could heal up her lung a bit and make it easier for her to breath when she did wake up and knowing Norah she wouldn’t be able to sit still for eleven days which is what would have had to happen to be sure she healed up.” He said with a slight chuckle, a fond smile on his face.

“Who are you?” Niki asked over the line.

Now wasn’t that a loaded question, Tony’s first response to that question would have been Norah’s father but this was Norah’s sister and he couldn’t exactly say that to her seeing as the two shared the same father and all, his second response would have been Tony Stark – billionaire, playboy, philanthropist and genius but decided that she would probably think that was a bit farfetched as well. So he decided to make it short and simple.

“I’m a friend.” Tony said to her and shrugged his shoulders even though she couldn’t see him doing it. “Look, I didn’t tell Norah that I called you because I wanted to see what your reaction would be and well, I kinda thought she wouldn’t have called you which I was obviously wrong about. Think you know a person and then wham, do the opposite of what you expect.” He said over the phone and heard an annoyed sigh. “I was calling you to find out if you even wanted to see Norah but I’m going to go ahead and assume that that’s a stupid question and that you want to see her.” He said.

“Of course I do you idiot!” Niki basically yelled through the phone, her tone insinuating that she thought Tony was an idiot. “Where is she? Where are you guys? What hospital? Where do I need to fly in? Can I bring my family?” she fired off once again.

Closing his eyes Tony took a deep breath before answering, “We’re in New York City.” He answered her. “We’re not at a hospital per se but at my Medical Facility but I have the best doctors who have been working with her since we flew her in from Sokovia.” He told her.

“New York?” Niki questioned, a tight voice. “Okay, okay I’ll get the soonest plane ticket I can, my husband and daughter and we’ll figure a place out to stay and then-“ she began to say, her thoughts going all over the place.

“Whoa, hold up.” Tony said to her, breaking her thought process off. “Don’t buy any plane tickets I’ll cover it and you can stay at the tower with everyone else. If…if you want to tell yours and Norah’s mother and father and have them come with you can. I’ll cover all of the tickets. I just need to know how many to get.”

“Okay.” Niki said in a much calmer voice and paused a moment before saying anything else. “Can I have a day to talk with my husband and with my mom and dad before deciding how many we need.” 

“Yeah, yeah.” Tony said to her. “Go for it.” 

There was a sigh of relief, “Thank you, thank you so much. I….I don’t even know your name.” she realized, a tone of curiosity and embarrassed over not asking him more than likely.

Tony chuckled, “Tony.” He told her. “Now once you figure out how many plane tickets you need call or text me back at this number, okay?” he questioned her. 

“Al l right.” She said to him softly.

“Well, see ya.” Tony said a bit awkwardly and not knowing what else to say to his daughter’s sister and hung up before the woman was able to say anything else to him.

That wasn’t weird or awkward at all, nope, not in the least.

Deciding that it was probably best to go and face the music Tony left his lab and headed towards the Medical Wing, to Norah’s room so that he could tell her about the phone call that he had just made. A phone call that will either make Norah happy or piss her off. 

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~ Medical Wing : Norah’s Room ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

For the last fifteen minutes Tony and Norah had been sitting in uncomfortable silence, he knew getting Norah drunk and then telling her about what he did – inviting her sister and the rest of her immediate family to New York – would have been the better choice, she would have reacted better or at least would have said something by now rather than just pursing her lips together with a hard look on her face. He had hoped that she would have taken this news as a good thing but nope, that ship sailed apparently and instead he’s left with a pissed off Norah.

“And why exactly did you do that Tony?” Norah asked finally breaking the uncomfortable silence that had settled between the two after Tony told her what he did, who he had invited back to the tower to see her. “Why? Why did you invite them here, all of them? I mean Niki I get; I called her before we left for Sokovia but my mother? My Father? Really. Do you really think that’s a good idea, what if my Ma goes all anti-Mutant on me and hired some skilled as fuck ninja’s to kidnap me and take me to a doctor to get ‘fixed’ like she wanted to do when I was fifteen. Huh? What then Tony?” she demanded of him, her arms crossed lightly under her chest so to not put any pressure on her wounds that would cause her pain. 

When Tony heard the ninja part he couldn’t help but give a snort at how unbelievable Norah was acting, “Ninja’s Norah, really?” he asked her with a childish roll of his eyes. “What reality are you living in?” 

At that Norah made a face at him, “Come on Tony, do you really think inviting them all is the best idea. I mean…..god, I ran away for a reason when I was fifteen Tony and I never really planned on going back or seeing them again. Well, other than Niki. I’ve always wanted to see her again but not my parents, definitely not my parents Tony.” She said to him, her dark eyes flashing angrily at him before she closed them for a moment and then started picking at the blanket that was laid over her legs and hips. “I would get jealous of other people when I walked the streets or went to restaurants or anywhere really and saw a happy little family together, I got so jealous and angry and sometimes I would cry because I couldn’t have that, because my family wasn’t like that and because they never would be. I wanted what they had Tony, god I wanted it so desperately. But I knew I would never have that and after I ran away I knew I definitely wasn’t going to be getting it. I love my mom, even with everything she said back then I love her and am angry at her and I love my sister but my dad….I don’t really feel sad that he’s not in my life, I felt sad back then because I wanted a father but I have you now Tony.” She said and paused for a moment as she tried to gather her thoughts. “I just don’t understand why you called them, why you invited them here and why you didn’t talk to me about it first or ask if I wanted you to do that.”

Tony looked at Norah, he now felt like absolute shit for doing this and he knew she was going to be angry but he never thought she would look this hurt and broken at the prospect of them coming to see her. Being a parent was hard and Tony decided that he was never going to have any kids other than Norah, she was handful enough for him even at the age of twenty-two, almost twenty-three years of age. 

“Look Norah,” Tony said as he ran his hands through his dark colored hair as he stretched his legs out in front of him from the chair he was sitting in. “I’m sorry. I know that I should have consulted you first, but you know me, act first then asked later.” He said to her. “I just, well I just thought that they deserved to know. What I felt when I found out about you being injured and no one being certain that you’d live through the surgery, I felt terror Norah, I felt as if my world was coming apart at the seams and nothing would be able to fix it. I know you don’t talk about your family much and you don’t like talking about your dad but I think this is something that you need to do Norah.”

At that Norah scoffed sarcastically, “I don’t need to see them. Ma wanted me to go to the doctor and get fixed from my powers, powers that I loved and still love to this day and my father wasn’t exactly father of the year and was a drunken alcoholic who didn’t care about anyone but himself but was damn great at pretending to care.” She said with an angry shake of her head. “The only ones I want to see are Niki and her family.” 

As much as Tony wanted to agree with Norah, hell if he was in her place he would full heartedly agree, he knew he couldn’t. Norah has been keeping what she felt about her family locked up tight, sure he knew a bit about what she felt and what they had said to her before she had run away and the sort of man her father was – doing a background check on her father gave him a lot of information too – Tony knew it wasn’t good to not think about them or at least address the whole ‘family drama’ issue that she has. Tony thought that if Norah saw her family again that she could have a sister relationship with her sister once again and that when she saw her mom and birthfather again that she could either say she never wanted to see them again or ream into them, letting her anger tell them exactly how she felt. 

“Tony…….I don’t want to see him. I don’t want to see Tom.” Norah said softly, a heavy sigh in her voice knowing that it was already too late and that Tony was going to make this happen one way or another even if he wasn’t all that fond of her father or mother at the moment. “Please, don’t make me see that asshole.” 

Hearing the hopefulness, anger and dread at the thought of having to see her father again Tony looked at her softly before he stood up and scooted himself onto the bed beside Norah, his legs stretched out in front of him and an arm gently circling around Norah’s shoulders. “Look, it’s too late to tell him to leave and Pepper would tell me it’s rude to take back an invitation once given.” He said which earned a snort of amusement. “But I won’t let him come near your room unless you say otherwise.”

“Since when did you worry about being rude?” Norah asked with a playful smile on her lips as she looked up at the man who she thought of as a father, an actual father. 

“Since Pepper threatened me with a hiatus of sex.” He pointed out to her bluntly which she scrunched up her nose in disgust in response to. “Not something I want to experience, sounds horrible.” He said and then bent down and pressed a kiss into her messy hair. “Okay?” he questioned.

Looking up at Tony in resignation, “Fine, but if they do something that either makes me feel unsafe or that makes me want to hit them and bury them in our nonexistent backyard then you better send them packing. No questions asked.” She said sternly, waiting for him to refute that but he didn’t.

Instead Tony nodded in understanding, “Hey, they step out of line and I will personally drop them off at an airport or take them for a bit of flying lessons. That’ll teach them to mess with my daughter.” He said, a manic grin appearing on his face at the thought of doing so and wondered if that would work on Pietro but then shook that thought away, Pepper would kill him and the kid was way too fast for him to catch all that easily.

“I’m gonna hold you to that.” Norah muttered to him as she yawned widely, who knew being asleep for eleven days was so tiring on the body. 

Instead of kicking Tony out so she could sleep Norah leant against his arm and closed her eyes, enjoying the familial feeling she got whenever she and Tony had father/daughter moments with one and another. Something that she had been desperately lacking back in Minnesota.


	22. Chapter 22

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_ Norah: Medical Wing ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

Norah understood all of the doctor’s ordering her to stay put and stay in her room in the Medical Wing until they deem her well enough to move back to her room which would be happening who knows when. But that doesn’t mean she can’t be annoyed and frustrated at the fact that she was basically confined to the bed she was laid up in. Hell, they barely let her go to the bathroom by herself let alone leave the room for a quick escapade to the kitchen or something or even to just walk up and down the hallways to stretch her legs. All Norah really wanted to do was just get out of the Medical Wing and be back in her own bed, she wasn’t overly fond of Doctor’s or Hospital-like environments……not since her mother wanted to get her ‘fixed’ from her Mutant powers.

For the last two days or so that Norah has been awake from her nearly two week coma she has been surrounded constantly by either Pepper and Tony or by Pietro and Wanda while everyone else had been told to stay away for at least the first day or so to give Norah a bit of time to recover from being unconscious for so long, Tony had told Pietro under no circumstances to go into Norah’s room but Pietro being, well, himself he decided to not listen to what Tony said and do what he wanted anyways. Tony had yelled at Pietro a few times for doing that but Pepper had stepped in and told Tony to stop acting like a four year old child getting their favorite toy taken away and to let Pietro visit Norah if he wanted to, she told him that it was obvious that the Sokovian cared quite a bit about Norah and the two of them deserved time to talk and to spend some time together. When Pepper had said that Norah got the deer in the headlights look on her face and blushed, she wasn’t sure what to say to that and was a bit embarrassed that she had said that in front of Pietro and Tony. Okay, yes Norah obviously liked and cared about Pietro a great deal and even a blind man would be able to see that and yeah the two have kissed (more than kissed in fact) and have felt each other up a bit but Pepper definitely didn’t have to point out the care that the two twenty- something year olds felt for one and another. Neither Norah nor Pietro have really had the time to talk about what was going on and Norah has never really been all that great at talking about her feelings, at least not when it came to people she really liked and was interested in and wanted to date. She partly blamed it on her past and issues she has with her birth father. 

Norah did want to talk with Pietro but she’s noticed over the last two days that he’s barely left her side and has been spending all of his time in the Medical Wing with her and reluctantly demanded that he needed to leave for a while and do something else, something away from her and the Medical Wing. She jokingly said that she was the one that was laid up in the Medical Wing of the tower and she was itching to leave and yet here he was, healthy as a horse and wanting to keep himself trapped in the wing with her. She told him under no circumstances is he allowed to come back for at least four hours, that he needed to go and see Wanda or any of the other Avengers or even go on an adventure around the city and sight see a bit to which he said he wouldn’t go out into the city until she could show him around. Pietro refused to leave at first but when Norah threatened to use her powers – which she was told to not use until further notice – he hesitated for a moment, considering his options and wondering if she would actually follow through with her threat. In the end Pietro decided to leave, not wanting to chance Norah maybe or maybe following through with her threat, she was stubborn enough to do it if she really wanted to. 

“No. No. No. Ugh, definitely not.” There was a heavy sigh that escaped from Norah’s lips. “And no.” she said from her spot on the rather large medical bed that she was laying in that would probably be able to fit two people comfortably on it, a bed which she was really itching to get out of but Doctor Cho and her team continuously told her that she could not leave yet – apparently two days wasn’t long enough time to heal. 

Norah was incredibly bored out of her mind at the moment and for the last two or whatever days she has been reading and listening to her music but she can only do that for so long before she needed a break to do something…anything else and she had decided to watch some TV but as luck would have it there wasn’t anything worthwhile to watch on the six hundred plus channels that Tony paid for. So instead of watching anything in particular Norah was just flipping through the channels continuously, hoping something interesting would pop up but she wasn’t about to hold her breath. Hell, she’d even take America’s Next Top Model at this point, though she was more of a Say Yes to the Dress fan…..not that she would admit that to anyone. 

“Knock, knock.” A familiar voice said from behind the closed door of Norah’s temporary room, the handle turning and a bright redhead appearing around it – Natasha – a smirk in place on her face. “Up for some visitors? I’ve been trying to keep these idiots in line but it’s a lot of work without you and well, they said they won’t wait any longer to see you.” She told her, a rare warm tone laced in her words as she spoke. 

“Yes, Lady Norah!” Thor said. “May we enter your healing chamber?” he questioned loudly to which Norah gave an amused smile to her Norse God friend. 

Hearing Natasha’s voice and seeing her somewhat stoic face – she was a trained assassin and Russian, emotions aren’t exactly her thing – well, it just made Norah that much more thankful and relieved that she was alive and healing. Most people who met Natasha for the first time were intimidated by her and did all that they could to avoid her and would go out of their way just to avoid wherever it was that she was walking or whatever room she may be in but not Norah, no, Norah being herself decided to do the opposite of what a good deal of the other SHIELD agent’s advised and approached Natasha and sat with Natasha after their training sessions. Sure, the first time Norah saw Natasha and talked to her she intimidated her beyond belief and the fact that she was a trained assassin who used to work for not so nice guys kinda freaked her out but who was she to judge, some of the teachers from Xavier’s didn’t use to be all that nice nor did they do very legal stuff before becoming teachers for Xavier’s so really, why judge Natasha on her past. 

Norah could tell that people wondered how she and Natasha became friends; Norah was intense, a whirlwind so to say, stubborn and would take anyone head on and yell at someone if they insulted or hurt someone she cared about while Natasha was more reserved, quiet, calculating and seemed to have a cold persona, she was protective of those she cared about and would do anything for them but she was slower to form a plan and would strategize. Norah was full of life and loved teasing, being sarcastic and was more than willing to smile if she felt like it while it took Natasha a lot of effort to smile or show that she cared for someone – even Clint. But both females considered each other friends.

“I suppose I could fit you guys into my schedule.” Norah responded teasingly, a playful smirk on her face which was basically healed of all the bruises she had sustained during the fight against Ultron. 

There was a sound of a scoff from behind Natasha who pushed the door open even more, “I travel all this way to see Little Miss Badass and all she can say is that she supposes she could fit me into her schedule. Huh? Is that how it is?” the familiar voice of Sam Wilson said as he pushed his way into the room and then stopped a few feet away from Norah and crossed his arms like a petulant child, a pout on his lips as he looked down at Norah who had a book on her lap and a remote hanging loosely from her fingers. 

“For you Sam,” Norah said and thought for a moment. “I can schedule you in for about five minute’s tops.” She said to him playfully to which he just rolled his eyes at her antics.

Sam walked closer to her medical bed and plopped himself unceremoniously into the chair that was closest to her bed and shook his head at her, “Why do I put up with you? You’re a big meanie.” He said as he crossed his arms and stretched his legs out in front of himself and crossed them at the ankles.

Norah gave a small laugh before giving a slight grimace of pain, she may be on the way to healing up but she was still in a bit of pain from the gunshot wounds she received. “What are you, five?” she asked rhetorically. 

Steve, knowing that both Sam and Norah could banter and tease one and another back and forth for hours on end if given the chance decided to interrupt the two before they really got into it; the two of them seem to live for teasing each other and pushing the other’s buttons whenever they had a chance to do so.   
“Maybe I am.” Sam said to her, a small smirk trying to make its way onto his face. “I ca-“

“You two act like cats and dogs sometimes, do you know that.” Steve interrupted the two who turned to look at him, sheepish looks on both of their faces. “Glad you’re awake Norah.” He said to the younger blonde haired girl with a serious look in his eye as he looked into her dark brown colored eyes. “You gave us quite a scare.”

Norah looked at Steve and then at Natasha, Thor and Sam and gave a small wavering smile at them, a smile that was supposed to look confident and show Steve that he didn’t have to worry about her but she felt as if it didn’t come off quite as confident as she meant for it to. She meant for it to be ‘don’t worry, I’m a strong bad ass female’ sort of smile but seeing her friends…family surrounding her and supporting her and showing how much they cared for her, well, some days it still got to her and made her a bit emotional and act like a thirteen year old girl. For years Norah felt unwanted by her own father who barely did or said anything to her past the age of nine and then when her Mutant abilities came to the surface her mother made her feel unwanted, like a freak and even though it’s been years since then and even though Tony accepted her Mutant abilities and all and treated her like a daughter it was hard to forget how your own flesh and blood treated you and it was hard to not feel hurt over that fact.

Sometimes Norah felt as if she needed to take a step back and look at the life she was living; here she was a twenty-two year old girl living at Stark Tower, was basically the daughter of Tony Stark, her friends were either Mutant’s or Superhero’s, she’s helped save the world from a crazy murder bot, she knew a Norse god personally (how many people can say that?), she’s been trained by a Russian Assassin, knew the Hulk and was friends with Captain America. Her family is filled with superheros and with them she didn’t feel the least bit different because of the fact that she was a Mutant.

“Sorry Cap,” Norah said to Steve as she looked up at his muscled form, though she still preferred Pietro over him or Thor any day of the week. “You know I can’t help myself sometimes and just gotta worry you all, keep you on your toes and whatnot.” She joked with a playful smile on her face, covering the fear that she had felt at the fact that she had almost died. 

“Troublesome little hellion is what you are.” Natasha said slyly, a smirk in place.

At that Norah turned her dark eyes and gave Natasha a pointed look, “Little Hellion? Who are you calling Little Hellion, you’re not that much older than me the last I checked.” She said and sent Natasha an unamused look for her statement. 

“But you don’t deny being troublesome?” Natasha questioned to the younger woman.

Looking at Norah as she chatted with Sam, Natasha and Thor and catching up on the week and a half or so that she’s been unconscious Steve just looked at her in wonder and unbelievably. Steve knew that Norah was a force to be reckoned with but he felt guilty at the fact that he underestimated her and how strong she truly was and couldn’t believe that even after everything that she had endured – fighting constantly for however many days straight, her life being in danger and then being shot at – that she was still the same person as she was before they all dragged her into this Ultron mess of Tony’s. Back during World War two Steve had seen things that he didn’t wish upon any man, he saw people get blown up, he’s seen horrific wounds that men had suffered from enemy fire, he’s seen things that he wished…..wished so desperately to forget and erase from his mind but can’t. Some of those men didn’t come back the same, didn’t jump back into being the person they were before they had suffered and some of those men didn’t suffer all that much but were still affected and some of those men hadn’t been through what Norah has and yet this slip of a woman somehow was able to come out of this ordeal with her head on straight and without too much of a lasting effect on her person. He admired her for that, for her strength, her stubbornness, her determination and the fight that she had in her. 

“Norah,” Steve said gaining her attention from whatever conversation she was having with Sam. “I know you don’t like it when I say things like this, usually tell me I’m old fashioned and that it sounds sexist nowadays but I’m gonna say it anyways.” He told her as he looked at her intently, wanting her to know how much he believed what he was about to say to her. “You’re one hell of a dame.” 

“Language.” Natasha admonished jokingly, earning a giggle from Norah and an annoyed look from Steve at the reminder.

Hearing that from Steve made Norah smile widely, “I am, aren’t I?” she said to him as she slowly shifted in bed, trying to find a more comfortable position. 

“Humble too apparently.” Sam uttered underneath his breath to which Norah pretended to not hear him. 

Thor looked at Norah enthusiastically and nodded his head, “You are a mighty warrior Lady Norah, and for years to come there will be tales of your bravery and of your own life that you nearly sacrificed for the good of all.” He told her in what seemed like a melodramatic tone of voice but knew it was just Thor being himself. “My father would have been proud to have someone such as you join Valhalla but I am glad that it did not come to that.”  
Norah shook her head at Thor, the guy was hilarious at times with how he spoke and how blunt he was at times and it was funny as hell watching him see or try something new that he didn’t understand like video games or going to see contortionists. 

“Me too big guy, me too.” Norah said simply. “I’m rather fond of this whole living experience thing that I’ve been doing for the last twenty some years and, well, it’d really put a damper on my day if I suddenly wasn’t able to do the living thing.” 

“Or see Pietro.” Natasha said off hand, an almost Cheshire grin on her face while she said it. “You two have been joined at the hip since you woke up, I half expected him to be here when we came to visit you.” 

At that Norah gave Natasha a sarcastic smile for that comment, “Ha, ha. You’re freaking hilarious Tasha.” She said flatly to her and then looked around the room and noticed that neither Clint nor Bruce was there, Clint she assumed would have gone home to see his wife and two kids so that he could reassure them that he was still alive and kicking but Bruce, she thought Bruce would have still been there. “Where’s Bruce?” she questioned.

The moment she said that Natasha suddenly took on a downcast expression, the look on her face obviously hinting that she’d rather not answer that question but knew that Norah needed to know, she was friends with Bruce as well. “Bruce…well Bruce took off a bit after the battle. He took one of the jets and the stealth technology was turned on so we don’t really have any idea where he is at the moment.” She answered stoically, not wanting to show how hurt she was that Bruce had left.

Hearing that made Norah internally cringe a bit, she knew that Bruce and Natasha liked one and another and had seen Natasha openly flirt with Bruce on a few occasions but he either didn’t think she was seriously flirting with him or the flirting flew right over top of his head. Bruce was a quiet and shy guy and from what Norah heard he didn’t date all that much and thought that he didn’t deserve to be happy or have someone like Natasha be in his life as his girlfriend because of the other guy, he always thought that he would be putting them in danger or would explode one day and unintentionally hurt someone he cared deeply for. 

Deciding to change the subject so to not make Natasha have to think about Bruce, Norah looked over at Sam. “So,” she said looking at him curiously. “How long are you staying for?” 

Sam looked at her apologetically, “Sorry Spitfire but I’m only here for today and tomorrow, me and Cap are heading off to Indiana tomorrow afternoon.” He told her with a lopsided smile.

Furrowing her brows Norah looked up at Steve, “Bucky?” she questioned, hoping that finally Sam and Steve had a good lead on Steve’s friend and would be able to get there before he took off once again and led them on a wild goose chase which seemed to be a common theme when it came to hunting Bucky down. 

When Norah said that Steve gave a nod, a desperate and hopeful look in his eyes that this time would be the time, that this time he would finally be able to see Bucky face to face since they had their fight at the Triskelion when SHIELD had fallen. “Yeah, a few of Sam’s contacts and some people I know said there were signs of Bucky in Indiana and that he had been staying at the homeless shelter last night. I gotta go while I still have a chance of meeting up with him, I…I can’t lose him.”

Norah hoped against all the gods in existence that Steve would finally be able to catch up with Bucky and that Bucky would give Steve a chance to talk to him, to tell him that everything was okay and that he just wanted to help him and would finally be able to bring him back to the tower to help him heal and recover from everything that he had been forced to endure because of Hydra. No one deserved to be brainwashed, tortured and used as a weapon like Bucky was, he was the longest prisoner of war and deserved the chance to actually live his life. 

“You’ll find him.” Norah said to him with confidence, a small smile on her face that she sent towards him. “And remember my offer, if you need help don’t hesitate to ask.” She said and then paused for a moment while she looked down at herself and then back to Steve. “Not now obviously, I mean I would go with you but I’m kinda injured and not much use at the moment.”

Sam shook his head, “Such a glutton for punishment, aren’t you kid.” He said to her. 

Thor looked at Norah and grinned, “That is a sign of a great warrior, you are injured but you are willing to offer your aide. I do hope to join you in battle once again someday.” He told her.

At that everyone stopped and stared at Thor for his comment, maybe in Asgard it would be considered a compliment and a great honor to go into battle alongside Thor but the majority of people in Earth would probably prefer to not go into battle again, especially so soon after being injured while in battle like Norah was.

“I suppose not anytime soon though.” Thor said offhand after he noticed the odd looks that Natasha, Steve, Sam and Norah had given him. 

“No, I don’t think so.” Natasha said as she shook her head. 

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~ Norah: Medical Wing: 2 AM ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

Norah knew she was going to be affected by what happened in Sokovia, at least a little bit but she had hoped that she wouldn’t be forced to relive what happened in Sokovia with Ultron in her dreams and had hoped that she wouldn’t have to have nightmares not just about Ultron but also about what had happened in St. Louis. Both of the worst traumas in her life combined into one horrific and gruesome nightmare; not exactly her cup of tea nor was it something she wanted to see when she was trying to get some sleep. The nightmares were the main reason why she ended up not going to sleep until late, hoping she would exhaust herself to have a dreamless sleep and the other was the fact that her injuries hurt a bit and no matter what sort of med’s they gave her or what position she tried to sleep in it took a good long while for her to be able to get comfortable enough to fall asleep. If she moved or shifted a certain way it would pull at her wounds, and if she laid in a certain position it would put pressure on a certain bullet wound or two and well, it took a bit of finagling before she found the perfect position that wouldn’t pull or bother any of her wounds. 

Tonight was going just like the last two or three nights that Norah had been out of her medically induced a coma – she was having a nightmare. 

A scream escaped her lips as she woke from her nightmare, sitting straight up Norah breathed in shaky breaths and pressed her hands down into the large mattress of the bed she was sitting on top of and tried to force the images of her nightmare away but it was damn near impossible, the nightmare was so vivid. “Stop it. Stop it. Stop it Eleanorah, don’t think about it. You’re fine, it’s over, you’re not there anymore and Ultron is dead. You don’t have to worry.” She said to herself as she slowly started to be able to control her erratic breathing that was caused by the nightmare she had just woke from; pulling her one leg that didn’t end up getting shot to her chest and then resting her forehead against it Norah did all she could to try and push those horrible images away. “It’s fine, it’s fine, it’s fine. You’re fine. Pietro is fine. Clint is fine. Tony is fine. Everyone is fine.” She said to herself like a mantra and blinked the images of the bloody and mangled bodies of her friends and family out of her mind to the best of her ability. 

Digging her short nails into the skin of the palm of her hand Norah’s breath slowly started to even out into much steadier and even breaths; god, shew as a complete wreck at the moment and hated, absolutely hated that shew as so affected by what had happened in Sokovia. Sure, the doctors had told her that there would be some after effects from being shot five times and from being in battle against Ultron and his minions and they also had told her there was a moderate chance that she may develop a small form of PTSD for a while from what she had gone through and experienced. Norah hated that she was like this right now, hated that she wasn’t back to normal immediately after waking up from her a coma and hated that she wasn’t sure nor knew how to handle and deal with what happened to her. Anyone who knew her has always described Norah as being the strong, stubborn and resilient type and right now…well, she wasn’t feeling all that strong or resilient. She felt like herself but a little broken but didn’t want anyone to know, she didn’t want her family or friends to know how much she was truly affected by the fight with Ultron. She wanted to be strong, she wanted to be okay and be able to be her old self like Natasha, Steve and the others seemed to be able to do. She definitely was going to need therapy; there was no doubt about that. 

“Ms. Norah.” The somewhat familiar voice of Friday said throughout the room. “Are you all right? Shall I contact Mr. Stark for you?” she questioned in concern, an unusual trait for an AI usually but Tony had a flair for eccentrics. 

Immediately Norah shook her head vehemently, “NO!” she yelled in a panicky tone of voice at the thought of having Tony see her like this, seeing her look so broken and so affected by what had happened and by her nightmares. “No, don’t tell Tony. Don’t…I can’t let him…I…just don’t tell him. Please.” She begged of the AI desperately.

She loved Tony and as far as Norah was concerned he was her father and sure he’s seen her in many different emotional states over the last three or so years – break-ups, failure’s, depression, anger and everything in-between – but this was something different, this was something she didn’t want him, Pepper or any of the other Avengers to see. She didn’t want them to see her like this, to see her unable to bounce back and be the person she was before all of this went down. 

“I would advise you to contact Mr. Stark, Ms. Norah.” Friday said throughout the medical room. “You have been having nightmares since you woke up from your coma; from the scans that I have done and the files that I have accessed from Doctor Cho I know that you need rest from your injuries and that these nightmares are causing you to have high levels of anxiety and pos-“

Before Friday had a chance to finish whatever it was that she had been saying Norah interrupted her. “I said no!” Norah snapped irritably at the AI and wiped desperately at the tears that seemed to keep on streaming down her face and no matter how hard she tried to control them and tried to calm herself down they just kept on streaming down her face.

Deciding to ignore what Friday was trying to say to her – not that Norah was paying much attention, she was pretty sure she was having a panic attack at the moment – Norah instead screwed her eyes shut tightly, tears streaming down her face, slouched her shoulders forward and over her knew that was still propped up and resting against her chest and then pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes as if she thought it would help still the tears and stop her mind from relieving what happened in Sokovia. Sitting there alone in the darkness of her medical room Norah cried and kept on repeating to herself that she was okay, that everyone was all right, that she didn’t have to be afraid anymore, that Vision had made sure Ultron was gone for good, that everyone she cared for was alive and well even with Bruce MIA at the moment – Hulk wouldn’t let him die anyways. No matter what she tried to tell herself Norah couldn’t seem to calm down and her breaths were once again getting shaky once again and erratic and her heart felt like it was beating a mile a minute, more than likely signs of her definitely going through a panic attack. 

There was the sound of the door to her room opening and she heard Friday say something but at that precise moment Norah wasn’t really comprehending what was going on around her, she didn’t even notice the lights of her room being turned on so that she could see rather than being stuck in pitch black. But suddenly there was a warm hand that gently grasped her around the forearm startling her and making her jolt back so that she was sitting straight up once again rather than slouching over her knee, after a few seconds of looking into ice blue colored eyes Norah realized that it was Pietro who had come into her room and who had gently grasped her around her forearm and covering the tattoo that she had there. 

“Pietro.” Norah whispered hoarsely, looking at him as if he was the anchor that was keeping her there in the world. 

Looking down at Norah, Pietro could see the utter terror that was reflected in her dark brown eyes, he could see the complete exhaustion that she was feeling at the moment and a few other emotions flitted across her face but the most prominent ones were terror and exhaustion. It pained Pietro to see Norah like this; so far he has only known Norah as the girl he had met in the woods of Sokovia who had been a strong, stubborn, brave and determined woman with one hell of a punch who was protective of her friends and family and who had a bit of a playful side to her. 

He wasn’t used to this side of Norah, the more frightened and vulnerable Norah, the one who had just been through a trying and horrible ordeal, the one who tried to put on a brave face and hide all that she was feeling and that was something Pietro knew from experience was not a good thing to do. After his parents had died and once they were extracted from their building that had been bombed Pietro had hid his feelings and thoughts on what happened to him and his sister, Wanda had talked about what happened but Pietro refused to and instead kept to himself and didn’t let anyone but Wanda in. 

“Moj mali bik,” Pietro said gently to the one woman who he was close to caring for just as much as he did for his mother and sister, something that terrified him and enthralled him at the same time. “What is matter Norah? What is wrong? What are tears for?” he questioned her softly as he slowly reached up and cupped the side of her face with one hand and brushed away the tears with the pad of his thumb, looking into Norah’s eyes with concern.

Norah tried to answer him, she really did, she went through the motions of opening her mouth intending on answering his concerned question but all that managed to escape was a small sob and instead of trying to calm herself down enough to answer him Norah turned to Pietro who was now seated beside her on her bed and pressed her head into the crook of his neck and grasped at his shirt desperately, ignoring the pain she got from her wounds for moving in such a way. Right now Norah needed human contact, she needed to feel Pietro and the warmness of his skin to be absolutely certain that he was there with her and that she hadn’t just dreamed everything up that has happened in the last three or so days. 

Seeing as Norah was unable to speak at the moment and not wanting her to end up crying again which, if the red eyes are any hint she has already done a lot of, Pietro instead decided to just hold her where she was and slowly rub soothing circles on her back, something that worked on Wanda when she was younger and when some of the kids at their school would tease or make fun of her. Shifting a bit and being mindful of the injuries that Norah was still healing from Pietro made himself more comfortable and then gently lifted Norah into his lap who responded by wrapping one of her arms around his neck loosely and keeping her one hand still clutching at his shirt, her head still pressed into the crook of his neck where he could feel tears landing. 

Moving his head a bit, Pietro bent down and kissed the top of her blonde curly haired head and breathed her in and encompassed his senses with a scent that was distinctly Norah. “Moj mali bik ja ne znam šta nije u redu, ali to će biti u redu. Sve je u redu. Ja sam ovde.” He said in his mother tongue, hoping that it would help to calm Norah down from whatever had terrified her so much. “Eleanorah, it is fine. Whatever matter, it is fine. I am here with you, yes?” 

Norah shifted closer to Pietro and wound both of her arms around his neck, one hand playing with the silver/blonde colored locks at the back of his neck and doing her best to not make a noise of pain that would make Pietro let her go. This is the most content and at ease she has felt during the night since she had woken up and god did it feel good to not have to worry, to not feel worry and fear about falling asleep and having nightmares. Pressing her forehead into his neck Norah sighed at the feel of his skin against the skin of her forehead and slowly began to relax a bit more.

“Eleanorah.” Pietro spoke, using Norah’s full name to gain her attention and locked eyes with her. “What is matter? Are you…..willing to tell me what is matter now, hmm?” he questioned as he pulled a bit away from Norah and reposition her on the bed next to him before she could even answer the questioned he just asked her, Norah may not have said anything but he knew that she was in a bit of pain in the position that the two had just been in previously.

Norah gave a small sigh as she leaned more heavily against Pietro’s side, “I…I had a nightmare.” She uttered quietly as she pulled her dark eyes away from Pietro’s and instead stared down at her lap and pulled at the scrubs she has been wearing since she woke up, what she wouldn’t do to have her own clothes to wear rather that these things. 

Hearing that Pietro interlaced their fingers together and squeezed gently, “A nightmare?” he questioned to which she just nodded into her shoulder. “This….this not typical nightmare then?” he asked carefully, not wanting to anger her.

“No, I don’t usually have nightmares.” Norah answered and pursed her lips as she tried to shake the images out of her mind that seemed to seep in. “I…it’s was horrible. We were all back in Sokovia, fighting Ultron. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t speak or do anything to help you guys and Ultron killed you all.” She stuttered out to him as she grasped his hand that much tighter and looked up into his blue colored eyes which she has enjoyed looking into whenever she had the chance to, no matter if there were people in the room with them or not. “But he…Ultron, he saved you and Tony last. Wanting me to suffer, to feel pain and watch as he slowly killed the both of you in front of me while I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t even cry.” She said and gave a bitter laugh as more tears developed in her eyes and quickly wiped them away before they could even fall down her pale cheeks. “You two yelled at me to help, to save you, to do anything to help you get away from Ultron but when you two noticed I wasn’t moving you both started yelling at me and blaming me for your deaths. Saying I didn’t care. Then he killed me, shot me a few times and then shot me right in the middle of the forehead.” She said to him as she tapped the middle of her forehead with her free hand. “God! I hate this! I hate these nightmares! I hate that I saw that and dreamt it! I hate feeling like this!” she yelled in frustration and attempted to hit her fist against her thigh but Pietro caught her wrist in his hands before she had the chance to and before she had a chance to cause damage to the gunshot wound that was there which she had forgotten about temporarily. 

Before Norah could say anything else Pietro leant down and kissed her without a second thought, it wasn’t the heated kisses that they had shared before or the steamy and passionate ones that they had shared either but it was soft and slow, tender and full of care. Slowly Pietro pulled his lips from Norah’s soft, full lips and kissed the side of her mouth and then moved his way to her cheek, kissed the tip of her nose, moved his way and kissed both of her eyelids which she closed as he got closer to her and then made his way upwards to her forehead before he journeyed back down and kissed her on the lips so lightly that it seemed as if they hadn’t even kissed. 

“Shh,” Pietro said as he released her from the kiss and gently pressed his forehead against hers and wiped at the tears that seem to once again be streaming down her face. “Shh Eleanorah, it is okay. We are all good, we are fine and do not have injuries. You were worst hurt Norah. Your father is fine, Natasha, Clint, everyone of Avengers is fine. Ultron cannot hurt anyone now, we are safe. Please, do not worry now. We are free from danger he caused us.” He told her as he began to run both of his hands through her wild, curly blonde hair – a dangerous action considering her hair seemed to have a mind of its own at times. 

“It felt so real Pietro; I felt the blood of my wounds and felt as the bullets hit me. It all….it was all just so real.” Norah said to him quietly as she pulled his hands from her hair to in front of her where she kissed his knuckles gently, something Pietro quirked an eyebrow at but said nothing. “I keep having these nightmares and I can’t seem to shake them and then I have a small freak out every time I wake up.” 

Hearing that Pietro’s brows drew together in concern at that bit of information, she should not be alone in her medical room and be forced to endure nightmares every night that she sleeps, she’s only been out of a coma for a few short days and needs all the rest that she can get. If she’s getting nightmares though, well, it makes it hard to get a good night’s rest when you’re seeing horrific things in your mind. 

“It is not real, not here.” Pietro said as he gestured to the world around them and then looked down at Norah seriously. “These things cannot hurt you, we are not dead and Ultron is not here to harm us. We are free from him and do not need worry now. We get to live our lives.” He said to her as he nudged his nose against hers playfully, a small smirk making its way onto his face. “Understand?” he questioned. 

Norah gave a small sigh before nodding her head at Pietro, “Yeah.” She answered. 

For at least a few minutes after that neither Norah nor Pietro spoke to one and another or the subject of Norah’s nightly nightmares that she has been getting since she had woken up from her medically induced a coma, both of them knew that more needed to be said on the subject of her nightmares, that Norah needed to either talk to Pietro, Tony, Pepper or any of the others about her nightmares or a professional because otherwise she wouldn’t be able to fully accept what had happened to her in Sokovia which is partly why she was getting nightmares of it. But at the moment, that was a subject that didn’t need to be talked about. 

Trying to be subtle Norah sneaked a few glances over at Pietro who was leaning back against the back of the bed which rather than lying flat was at an angled position which made it easier for Norah to work on her computer or watch TV; this was the first chance that either have had much time to talk alone and be alone with one and another for more than twenty minutes or so and Norah was going to take advantage of it but she was kind of nervous about what she wanted to do, or rather what she wanted to talk with Pietro about. It was obvious that the two of them liked one and another, and sure neither have known each other all that long and to most people it would seem weird that Norah and Pietro care so much about each other and like each other as much as they do after only knowing one and another for such a short period of time but for the two of them it just ended up working like that.

Norah, like any female in her twenties, wanted to know what was going on between herself and Pietro and wanted to know if this was something serious or not. Of course from the way Pietro acted she knew that he wasn’t doing this as a fling or just to pass time but she was female after all and needed to hear the words to be absolutely positive that he wanted something serious with her. It seems that they’ve done this whole….thing that they are doing backwards; they’ve kissed already and Norah was the one who instigated the kiss and technically speaking they may have been on a date already if you count fighting in South Africa and Seoul and fighting against Ultron as dates. God, she’s never been this nervous around someone she’s liked before but then again with Pietro it was different than those times, she really, really, really liked him and wanted to word this right and not majorly fuck it up. 

Taking a deep breath, a breath to help her find the brave part of her she looked over at Pietro who still had his eyes closed but was obvious was still conscious. “So.” Norah started nervously as she adjusted ever so slightly so that she lay a bit on her leg that didn’t end up getting shot in the fight. “Is this….is this a thing that we are doing, I mean we’re a….thing to one and another, right?” she questioned as she gestured between herself and Pietro and did her best to not seem like too much of a complete fool; in most circumstances she wasn’t afraid to be brave, to speak her mind or yell at people who she thought were doing wrong by her but when it came to telling the guy that she liked that she liked him a long and was wondering if they were dating or something along those lines…well, she turned into a thirteen year old when that happened. 

Pietro looked over at Norah and cocked his head to the side making himself look an awful lot like a puppy, “Thing? What do you mean by that word?” he questioned her with an amused glint in his eyes feigning confusion, though Norah didn’t notice the playful look he had in his eyes as she had turned away when he looked at her, too afraid that he might not want the same thing as she did. However unrealistic that thought was. 

Counting to ten in German to calm herself down Norah looked straight in the eye at Pietro, determined to get through this conversation and to make sure he knew that she liked him and wanted to date him – exclusively. “You and me. This…thing we’re doing.” She said as she gestured between them once again. Flirting, teasing and kissing and whatever, it’s something right? I’m not overthinking or assuming, we’re do-“

“Moj mali bik,” Pietro said as he leant closer to Norah and gently grasped her chin in his hand and stared into her dark eyes intently and pressed his forehead against hers, his oddly colored hair gently hitting Norah’s face. “I care for you and feel much for you, I think I am right when say you do too?” he questioned for a moment as he pulled back a bit to look at Norah who gave a nod of her head. “I…..am your boyfriend and you are my girlfriend. That is what you call it here, yes?” he asked with a raised brow, wondering if he had gotten the words correct.

Norah grinned at that, “Yes, those are the right words.” She whispered softly as she reached up and pushed a bit of his hair behind his ear, enjoying the silver/blonde strands as they slid from her fingertips. 

Pietro gave a half smile at her, “Then if is okay with you, I would like to be boyfriend to you.” He said to her, waiting for her answer though from the smile he had on his face he already knew what her answer was going to be without her really needing to speak it. 

Not being able to help herself Norah smiled so widely that it nearly hurt her face, “Yeah, that’s more than okay speedy.” She said to him and before he had the chance to say anything else to her she moved in quickly and pulled his head towards her and pressed her lips against his, showing him how much she cared for him and how much she agreed with being his girlfriend. 

This, this was well worth the nervousness of asking him if whatever they were doing was leading to being girlfriend and boyfriend. 

Pietro shifted a bit until he was laying on his left side and then pulled Norah up against him before she realized what was going on and wrapped an arm loosely around her waist and tucked her head under his chin, in response to this Norah gave a small chuckle at his antics and then reached towards Pietro’s hand and laced their fingers together and rested it against her stomach comfortably. 

“Comfy?” Norah questioned.

“Yes,” Pietro answered honestly. “You are soft in right places, easy to fall asleep next to I bet.” He told her honestly.

Giving a small smile at that Norah turned her head a bit and looked up at Pietro who was looking down at her softly, “We’re taking this slow, I just want to get that out there so that we don’t get any crossed wires and get confused about what we expect.” She said awkwardly a bit.

Pietro furrowed his brows, confused at the phrasing. “Crossed wires?” he asked. 

“So that we don’t get any mixed signals about what we want, or so that we are on the same page I guess.” Norah explained to him and saw a bit of confusion still on his face but eventually she saw realization in his eyes. “Does that make sense?”

Leaning down Pietro kissed Norah’s cheek, “Do not worry moj mali bik, I do not expect us to be in situation where less clothing is involved until you decide for it to happen, we take things slow. We can go on…..on a date first, yes?” he asked her. 

Norah laughed a bit at that, at how uncertain he was about certain words and about certain customs. “Yes, we can go on a date.” She said to him before she looked back away from him and settled her head back onto the pillows of the medical room she was forced to stay in for who knows how much longer.

Giving a content sigh Norah leaned her weight against Pietro and thought about everything that has happened in the last few days; she woke up from a coma and found out she was shot five times by Ultron, found out she nearly died from her injuries, found out Ultron died, Bruce was MIA at the moment, and Tony had called her family and they would be heading to New York in a day or two or so said Tony. Personally Norah was still a bit pissed at Tony for doing that but knew she needed to face her fears – yes she was a twenty-two year old female who had one hell of a personality but was afraid to face her birth family who she hasn’t seen since the age of fifteen. She could be brave and strong and determined at times but Norah was still allowed to have her moments of weakness and fear and uncertainty, like she had proved just that night. 

“Your mind busy,” Pietro said and gently tapped Norah’s temple with one of his fingertips, gaining her attention. “What is going on up there?” he asked as he traced his finger along the outside of her ear, playing ab it with the piercing in her upper ear. 

Closing her eyes Norah gave a heavy sigh that only pained her a little bit, “Tony, he called my birth family back in Minnesota. Told them that I was injured and invited them here.” She told him in a somber tone of voice which confused Pietro, if he had the chance to see his mother and father again he would jump at the chance. 

Pietro gave a look of confusion, “I do not understand.” He admitted to her as he studied the tattoo on her forearm intently, the red standing out starkly against her pale skin tone. 

For a moment Norah said nothing, not sure how to broach this subject especially considering that Pietro had lost his mother and father and yet she hasn’t spoken to any of her family members since she was fifteen when she had ran away from home. 

“I told Wanda a bit of this but I’m not sure if she told you,” Norah began. “I developed my Mutant powers when I was young; I was seven when I found out that I could Blink from one place to another. It was brought on by my parents’ divorce, I didn’t understand and wanted to get away and be alone and so I ended up Blinking myself to a park I really liked to go to. I hid it from them, from my family and practiced when no one was looking or when no one would notice. I got really good. At fifteen I was arguing with my ma about something stupid,” she said with a wry grin on her face and shook her head at how she had been then. “I was invited to go camping or go to my friend’s family cabin with her, another friend and her older sister. I had been begging my ma for two weeks straight but she said no and I wanted to go so badly, I thought that I was almost an adult and didn’t know why she wouldn’t let me go. This is when I found out I had a second power, the one where I can blow things up.”   
Norah had a dark look on her face when she said that, “I flung my arms out in frustration and anger, because, you know. I talk with my hands a lot. I ended up blowing the shed up and all that was left of it were splinters and broken pieces of wood. I panicked and ran inside and hid in my room, Mutants weren’t well liked by everyone and there were and still are a lot of Mutant hate groups.” She paused for a moment and enjoyed the feeling of Pietro’s fingers combing through her long hair. “We had a talk the next day; me, my ma and my older sister. Dad, well, he was nonexistent in the family and didn’t really care about us. My ma and Niki talked with me for a while, Ma asking why I never told her and how long I’ve known and her telling me that Mutant’s are dangerous and that we needed to take care of the problem.” She scoffed at that and glared at the wall across from her. “Take care of the problem; she wanted to get me fixed. She wanted me to get rid of my powers because she was afraid of them and didn’t understand what Mutants were. She thought all Mutants were like the ones that you see on TV; the ones who hate humans and the ones who are incredibly dangerous with destructive powers. Yes my power can be dangerous but I wasn’t like those Mutants. I was still her daughter but she wanted to fix me no matter what.”

“Norah-“ Pietro started gently but she shook her head at him.

Norah took a deep breath, “I ran away, stole my ma’s spare car and ran for it. I refused to be changed simply because she couldn’t accept the fact that I was a Mutant.” She said fiercely to him and pursed her lips. “I eventually ended up being found by Storm and Logan who worked at a school here in New York for kids like me, for Mutants and they brought me there and for the first time I felt accepted, I felt normal by being different. I had powers and these kids around me had powers too and it was okay. It wasn’t something to be feared. My ma made me feel like a freak when she was talking about my powers, she made me feel unnatural and like I needed to change. But I didn’t want to and that was why I loved Xavier’s so much, they accepted me no matter what.” 

Hearing all of this made Pietro have mixed feelings; on one hand Norah’s family was alive and well and she had the opportunity to see them if she wanted to while his mother and father were dead because of a bombing, taking away his chance of ever seeing them again. But, Norah’s mother wanting to change Norah simply because she was a Mutant wasn’t something he could accept or condone; no parent should try and change their child simply because they are different than them, because they are a Mutant. It’s not fair to them. 

“And your father?” Pietro asked hesitantly.

Norah snorted at that, “A drunken asshole, drug dealer who only cares about himself and getting high. I never got to know him, he was too busy dealing or drinking and to tell the truth from what I know of him I really don’t care.” She said with a simple shrug of her shoulders. “I hoped for years that he would step up to the plate and be the father I want, I hoped and dreamed of him getting better and being an actual father to me and Niki but he never did and after the age of ten or so I got smart and stopped caring. Or rather I attempted to stop caring.” She said and sighed heavily. “Some days it hurts to see other family’s out and about acting like a family should when I never got that chance with my birth father but then, then I remember that I have Tony, that he has done so much for me and done family things with me an Pepper and that makes up for it. Tony is my father. Even if he is a bit arrogant and selfish at times and makes bad decisions that turn something that was supposed to protect the world into a crazy murder bot.” she said last part sarcastically making Pietro snicker a bit. “He’s my family, the Avengers are my family and you and Wanda are important to me too now.”

Norah rubbed the back of her neck, “Why I don’t want to see my father is obvious, my mother though I don’t want to see because of how anti-Mutant she was and because she wanted to fix me.” She explained to him. “And…and I’m afraid if I see her I will revert back to the girl I once was, I could be stubborn and hard headed then but I wasn’t nearly as confident or out spoke as I am now. I don’t want to be that girl again, the one who was shy and liked to be a wallflower.”

“It has been many years Norah, I do not think you can come close to being like you were before even when you see mother again.” Pietro told her simply, confidence in his voice. “What about your sister?” he asked her.

At that Norah gave a smile, “I want to see her again, I want to know all about her now, I want her to know that I missed her and I miss our girl’s nights of movies and really bad food, I miss talking with her about everything and I miss having a sister. I want to know if she has a family, if she missed me and…everything.” Norah told him. 

Pietro looked at Norah and pulled her back towards him and wrapped his arm around her waist once again, lacing his fingers through hers. “All will be fine Norah, do not worry. Wanda and I are here, we will keep them away if they make you feel anger. You will reunite with your birth family and talk again, settle things maybe. If they are meant to work out they will if not, you say you tried then at least. Yes?” he asked her to which Norah just nodded at him rather than answering. “Now, it been long day and you had nightmare without much sleep. I think we should try and do that now.” He told her and asked Friday to turn the lights off.

With the lights off and the feeling of Pietro behind her, the feeling of his breaths on the back of her neck, Norah felt completely content and felt as if she didn’t have to worry about anything – at least for that moment. For that moment Norah didn’t have any worries whatsoever, she didn’t worry about her family coming and the more than likely family drama that was about to happen within the next few days, she didn’t worry about her injuries, she didn’t worry about her friends that she still needed to tell about what happened to her, she didn’t worry about anything at all. She just existed there with Pietro.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translations:  
> moj mali bik ja ne znam šta nije u redu , ali to će biti u redu . Sve je u redu . Ja sam ovde.
> 
> my little bull I do not know what is wrong, but it will be okay. Everything is all right. I am here.
> 
> Also, I'm using Serbian for Sokovian and am using google translate so if anything is completely wrong. Not my fault.


	23. Chapter 23

When Norah had first been put under a medically induced a coma Tony could barely sleep, he had dreams….nightmares, about Norah and about what happened to her in Sokovia, bout her being kidnapped by Ultron and about her bleeding out and dying there in Sokovia. There had been a few instances where he had woken Pepper up from his nightmares about Norah but for the most part he would usually just startle himself awake from them without waking her and since he wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep after seeing those images in his mind he would make his way to the Medical Wing to look in on Norah – to reassure himself that she was still alive, unconscious but alive. Even after Norah had woken up from her a coma Tony couldn’t help but come down to her room and check on her, to make sure that this all hasn’t been some sort of dream, to be sure that she wasn’t still in a coma and hooked up to all sort of machines that were helping her while she healed up. Maybe it was paranoia but being down there and being able to go into her room and see her while she slept and knowing with absolute certainty that she was okay and was on the road to recovery, well it helped his mental wellbeing and made him worry just a little bit less – he truly did worry as if Norah was his flesh and blood daughter. 

But this October morning visit to his daughter’s room in the Medical Wing of the tower was different; the Sokovian was there with her. Instead of Norah laying asleep in her bed – alone, like she should have been – Pietro was lying beside her with one arm tucked underneath his head and the other wrapped securely around her waist while avoiding the wounds on her side that she had sustained in Sokovia. Nope, Tony was definitely not a fan of this….scene that was in front of him right now not in any shape or form. Clenching his fingers tightly around the handle of the coffee mug in his hand and narrowing his eyes dangerously he made to move into the room and drag the male out forcefully but before he was able to do just that he spotted familiar red wisps of energy which wrapped around his person and pulled him backwards – a very unmanly yelps escaping his mouth – and the door to Norah’s room shutting quietly so to not wake the occupants within it. 

“Hey!” Tony said as coffee spilled down the side of his hand from Wanda pulling him back and away from the doorway of Norah’s room. “What the big idea?” he questioned, a scowl on his face as he looked at the younger woman. 

Okay, so he knew why Wanda pulled him back and out of the room. For one, Pietro was her brother and Wanda probably did her voodoo magic and saw what he intended to do and the sort of bodily harm he wanted to cause to Pietro and secondly, Norah was sleeping and it would probably be best to let her sleep for a while – she’s starting to get bags under her eyes. But Tony was Norah’s father all things considered and even though Pepper, Natasha, Clint and even Thor have talked to him about Pietro and the ‘thing’ that Norah and him have going on (he refused to call it a relationship) he couldn’t help but dislike the kid, he didn’t hate him but he did dislike Pietro. Norah’s dated a bit and out of the handful of guys she’s been on dates with he’s met two of those guys which he was pretty certain Norah did all in her power to make sure he didn’t meet many of them, something about him being egotistical, arrogant, overbearing, protective and saying something insulting or threatening to them. It’s not his fault the majority of them are too stupid or not good enough to date Norah, he wanted what’s best for Norah and most of those guys were definitely not on the list of what was best and what he wanted for Norah. 

Norah, Natasha, Pepper and Bruce have all tried to tell Tony that Norah was an adult, that she wasn’t a teenage who he could tell what to do and what was best for her, he needed to let her live her life and make mistakes and for the most part he did but when it came to her dating and seeing people of the male persuasion he just couldn’t seem to help himself. He knew about every single guy she’s dated no matter if it lasted only a few weeks to a few months – he did background checks and work history – he even knew about a few of the guys she had a friends with benefits sort of relationship which he will deny knowing about till he’s on his deathbed, but this thing with Pietro was different. Pietro was different…enhanced and Norah being a Mutant felt connected to him because of that, she liked him and found him more attractive because of him being enhanced, and Tony knew that because of that fact that he was more likely to lose Norah to Pietro. And yeah, he was probably being a selfish asshole but Tony didn’t want to lose Norah after only spending nearly three years with her as his daughter.

Wanda crossed her arms and shook her head at Tony, “They are fine, not doing anything bad. Let them sleep.” She told him and frowned at the former weapons dealer. “I know you do not like Pietro for not reason. I-“  
“No, no.” Tony interrupted. “It’s for a good reason.” 

Rather than responding to his childish interruption Wanda continued on. “You do not like Pietro. I only know bit of why, that you think he is bad for Norah or not good enough for her.” She said and looked at him knowingly but Tony did not look away even if she was correct in her thinking. “You do not mind me, I can tell but yet, you treat my brother like you do. Pietro is good person; we did what we had to or what we thought we had to do to help our people – our country. Pietro has done much for me, he sacrificed things to be sure I was happy; he offered me most of his food when we were both starving so that I had a full stomach. So tell me Mr. Stark,” Wanda said evenly to Tony as she stared him in the eye intently, trying to understand why he treated her twin brother like he did and then turned and welcomed her with semi-opened arms. “Why do you not accept him when you accept me?” 

“Look,” Tony said as he rubbed his free hand that wasn’t holding the coffee over his nose in frustration and then looked at Wanda who was looking at him curiously, waiting for him to answer her question. “Kid, I just don’t like your brother, okay. You can’t like everyone you know. Trust me, there’s hundreds of people out in the world that I’ve met in my years that hate me and think that I’m a complete ass hole.” He pointed out to her simply. “So not liking your brother isn’t that big of a deal.” 

Wanda looked at him, “Pepper says that you are a complete asshole at times.” She pointed out to him and then gave a small smile, a scheming sort of smile. “You, Tony Stark, are jealous. It is not Pietro that you do not like, you do not like because he is close to your daughter, because he is close to Norah and cares much for her. You do not like my brother because Norah likes him so much and you do not like that. You think you will lose her.”   
“What?” Tony asked incredulously. “W..What? Have you been talking with Pepper or something?” he questioned and then shook his head immediately when Wanda opened her mouth to answer his question. “You know what, no, don’t tell me. I don’t want to know if my girlfriend is conspiring against me when it comes to Norah and whatever thing she has going on with Speedy.” 

Tony shook his head at the dark haired female in front of him who was doing what any good sister would do and was defending her brother, turning away from her he glanced at the door of Norah’s room one last time with a scowl firmly in place before giving a small huff of annoyance and walking away. He didn’t want to hear anymore from Wanda about her brother, about how he was a good person (which he knew he was even if he wouldn’t admit it) he definitely didn’t want to hear what things she found in his mind so rather than dealing with that Tony left and headed towards his lab, he was sure there was something there he could mess with. Preferably something that wasn’t an AI or that would be Ultron-like. Maybe he’d go and look for Vision, introduce him to rock music or porn which Pepper would definitely yell at him for. 

Wanda shook her head at the middle-aged man; she may not hate him for what had happened to her and Pietro’s parents all those years ago and she was starting to forgive him but she will admit he was a bit selfish and an asshole at times. But he was Norah’s father, or rather Norah’s chosen father and so she would be civil and as nice to him as she could muster at the moment. Maybe in a few years she would fully forgive him but now was not the time. 

Opening the door of Norah’s room as quietly and slowly as she could so to not wake either Norah or Pietro up, Wanda peeked a look at the two and couldn’t help but smile to herself a bit at the sight that greeted her. There lying in the bed was Norah and Pietro, but Pietro his face buried in Norah’s rather vastly amount of curly hair and Norah had shifted a bit closer to Pietro’s taller frame as if she was trying to meld herself with him. Deciding to leave, Wanda shut the door and decided to make her way to the common room/kitchen area to see if anyone was awake, maybe Vision or Natasha would be willing to watch a movie on the very large screen TV that was in the common room. 

“What’s going on?” Norah asked sleepily when she heard the door to her room open and shut for the second or third time that morning, something that kept on interrupting her sleep which she desperately needed after a night of nightmares. 

Pietro shifted a bit behind Norah so that now Norah’s head was tucked underneath his chin – less likely to accidentally inhale Norah’s blonde curls as well. “Tony and Wanda.” He mumbled back as he slipped on of his legs in-between Norah’s carefully, in case it caused pain to the one that had the bullet wound in it. “Tony saw us sleeping here, was going to come in and yell but Wanda stopped him before he could.” He explained tiredly, it wasn’t just Norah who was tired at the moment. 

“Oh.” Norah said as she yawned. “I should talk to him, he needs to stop acting like a jackass when it comes to you and when it comes to you being with me.” She said and couldn’t help but let a smile slide onto her face at the fact that they were now officially boyfriend and girlfriend. 

“Hmm, later.” Pietro said as he wrapped his one arm around her waist a bit tighter around her. “Let us sleep moj mali bik, we deserve sleep. Yes?” he said to her and looked down at her and saw that she was already asleep again, smirking at that Pietro closed his eyes so that he could try and fall asleep once again, at least for a few more hours. 

~_~_~_~_~_.~_~_~_~_~.~_~_~_~_~._~_~_~_~_~_.~_~_~_~._~_~_~

It was mid-afternoon and for once Norah was alone in her room in the Medical Wing; Natasha had brought her lunch which consisted of some Greek flavored chicken and some steamed vegetables but had left after she received a phone call from…..someone, she had been awfully sneaky about who it was but Norah just shrugged it off, Natasha was a spy/assassin after all. So deciding now was the best time to get into contact with her friends and to let them know that she didn’t in fact drop off the face of the Earth and that she was still alive, she promised, she made a few calls. Well two calls, one being to Francheska who was in Europe for work and the other to Kitty and Piotr and Rogue if she was around, though the girl did tend to spend a lot of time around Remy/Gambit from what the gossip at the Institute was. 

So while eating some of the food that Natasha brought her, Norah called Kitty and put her phone on speaker so that she could eat and talk at the same time….that’s if she could get any word in edgewise – Kitty was a talker.   
“Eleanorah!” the high pitched voice of Kitty said over the speakerphone of Norah’s phone. “What is wrong with you? I haven’t heard from you in at least two weeks; no phone calls, no texting and not even an e-mail. I would have even taken a letter in the mail. Where have you been? What have you been doing?” she demanded without even taking a moment to breathe while talking.

“Uhh-“ Norah said lamely, searching for the right words.

“I do not think Uh is the right response to Kitty’s questions.” The familiar deep voice of Piotr said over the line.   
Norah gave a small laugh at that and chewed the rest of her food before responding “Well, you see, you can’t overreact or panic when I tell you.” She started out cautiously, Kitty, Rogue, Piotr and her have all been friends since Norah had joined Xavier’s Institute when she was fifteen years old and now some of them worked at the school as teachers and others were mainly X-Men – they’ve all changed over the years but continued to stay close to one and another. 

It was Rogue who spoke next, who Norah didn’t even realize was with Kitty and Piotr. “What did ya do, sugah? Ya ain’t in some kinda trouble that we need to be comin’ to bail ya out of? Ah thought that’s what Tony was for.” She said in her familiar southern drawl.

At that Norah gave a small smirk, “Nothing to be bailed out of, promise. But I kinda sorta might have gotten into a bit of trouble along with the other Avengers. World saving sort of trouble.” She said in a rush just to get the words out before she chickened out, oaky not chicken but before she decided she’d rather not worry them needlessly.   
“Is dis de friend you tell Remy about?” an unfamiliar voice said but considering he had a Cajun accent and referred to himself as Remy, Norah assumed that this was the Remy that Kitty has been telling her Rogue has been spending a lot of her time around and going out with.

Norah sighed, “Jesus Christ, how many people are there with you guys?” she questioned rhetorically. “I’m never gonna get to tell you what happened if people keep on speaking up.” She said.

It was Rogue who spoke up next, “Ah promise there ain’t nobody else. Just mahself, Remy, Kitty and Piotr. Now sugah, go on and tell us what happened. Why ya haven’ called or contacted us in two weeks.” She said to her.   
“Well,” Norah said and paused for a moment to get her thoughts in order. “I told you we’ve been going after Hydra bases and so we went to one and got Loki’s scepter back finally and Tony had a project that he scrapped because the technology didn’t exist yet but with the scepter-“ she said, cutting herself off.

Kitty sighed only imagining where this was going. “He could try it out.” She answered for her. “Have I told you that sometimes Tony is too much of a mad science for his own good?” she questioned.

At that Norah gave a snort of amusement, “Trust me, we tell him that every day and try and reign him in but it doesn’t work all that often sadly.” She said and shook her head at what happened in the last few weeks. “So Tony with the scepter decided to try and create Ultron – something he designed as a way to protect the world from outside dangers like aliens and whatnot. But…but things didn’t exactly go as planned.” She admitted to them and looked down at herself where she could still see a few bandages from her bullet wounds; they were slowly healing but not soon enough for her liking. “The program, Ultron, well it kinda went to shit. Something was wrong or, well, we’re not really sure what happened but there was a glitch and rather than trying to protect the Humans of the world Ultron wanted to kill everyone. He said that we needed to evolve into something more, or something along those lines.”

“When we were in Sokovia where we found Loki’s scepter we ran into these twins, Pietro and Wanda Maximoff who had been experimented on with the scepter and had developed powers because of it. Ultron had contacted them and convinced them to join them, said he was going to help the Human race and was going to help them take the Avengers down.” Norah explained, not giving Kitty, Piotr, Rogue or Remy time to respond to what she had just told them. “When Tony had been dealing in weapons he had sold some to people who had bombed buildings in Sokovia and so they blamed Tony for what happened and wanted to take him down. We fought against them and Ultron in South Africa and then something happened, or the two of them realized that Ultron’s ultimate goal was to kill of the human race so they joined us in fighting.”

Norah paused for a moment and took a drink of the mug of tea that Natasha had brought up as well, Irish breakfast tea made just the way she liked it with a dash of cream and sweetened perfectly. Norah knew that Kitty and Rogue were probably going to take this news badly, well once she told them about being shot by Ultron from one of the jets that the Avengers used, and Piotr probably wouldn’t be too happy either but it was hard to tell how he was feeling through the phone. 

“Norah-“ Rogue began but Norah interrupted her.

“We all headed back to the Tower, Tony with the help of Bruce and Thor created what Ultron should have been and Thus we have an android thing named Vision, and then we all headed to Sokovia to try and stop Ultron from killing all of us humans off. Pietro and Wanda fighting on our side this time instead of on the side of Ultron.” Norah said and gave a small smile when she said Pietro’s name, she couldn’t help it. “Long story short I ended up getting shot about five times while trying to save Pietro and Clint and some kid that got left behind accidentally, I nearly died from being shot and losing too much blood and got a bullet wound right in my lung and then was in a coma for about eleven days and have been awake for about three or four days now.” She ended and then stayed quiet until any of them said anything.

Norah had left the institute at seventeen because it wasn’t suited well for how she knew her powers worked, it wasn’t the right sort of environment to help grow her powers, to help them develop and become more advanced but she appreciated what she got from the Institute and what she was taught there with controlling her powers. Well, with controlling the more dangerous one of her powers at least. She missed Xavier’s at times because she missed being surrounded by Mutants and being able to talk and complain to them about Mutant like problems and she missed being around those that were some of her first friends – Mutant friends who wouldn’t judge her. She loved her life in New York City and loved having Tony as a father and everyone else but Norah missed the first friends she had ever made that accepted her Mutant powers.

Over the phone Norah could hear some low whispers, swearing and even some French which she could make a few of the words out – they were being spoken a tad bit too low and too fast for her. So while her friends and Remy were talking or doing whatever they were doing Norah ate a bit more of her food and drank her tea calmly, she felt as if today was going to be a good day and on the plus side she had gotten a decent amount of sleep. That was definitely a win in her book. 

“Ya…ya nearly died and ya didn’t tell us or nothin’?” Rogue questioned finally, anger laced in her voice. “Ya didn’t have any of them tell us or try contactin’ us at the Institute?” she questioned.

At that Norah rolled her eyes, “Well I was kinda unconscious and all, couldn’t really tell them what to do and I think Tony and them were too worried and out of it to think about contacting anyone.” She explained. “I’m fine.”

There was the sound of a loud snort, “Being shot five times is not fine Eleanorah.” Piotr pointed out to her.

“You know,” Norah said, a playful tone in her voice. “I really hate it when people call me that. How many times are you going to make me tell you to stop calling me that before you start calling me Norah Piotr?” she questioned him.

“I will always call you Eleanorah.” Piotr answered simply with an amused tone. 

“Remy tinks dat dis is one hell of a femme, ya were shot five time not just anyone can do dat and live to tell de tale.” Remy’s voice sounded through the phone. 

Hearing that Norah smiled and couldn’t help but grin at his Cajun accent, she’s never heard one before but she can understand now why Rogue was so taken with him. “I know right, I’m one hell of a badass woman.” She said with faux-arrogance. 

“If you ever do something like that again it’s not robots trying to kill you that you’ll have to worry about.” Kitty said dangerously, though Norah knew she was only saying that because she worried. “And the moment I see Tony I’m going to give him a piece of my mind and…and set Piotr on him or something. He’s going to know how angry and pissed off I am at him.” 

Norah laughed, “You’ll have to get in line.” She said to them with a smile on her face.

After that was said and done Norah, Rogue, Kitty, Piotr and even Remy chatted for a while and caught up with her friends and anything new that was going on in their lives and how the school was and the new students at the school were doing and if they had any problems with the anti-Mutant protestors or if that had calmed down a bit. She asked about Storm, Xavier, Jean, Hank and everyone else that was still there – Logan was still a wanderer who didn’t tend to stay in one place all that often for very long unless Xavier asked it of him. It was nice to catch up with her friends and to meet Remy officially since she’s heard so much about him even though it wasn’t in person and she even managed to sneak a promise out of him of having him make authentic New Orleans Gumbo.


	24. Chapter 24

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~ Niki : Minnesota ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

For years – nearly seven years in fact – Niki has been doing all in her power to find her younger sister Norah who has been missing for almost eight years, she’s searched and searched and then she searched some more but each and every single time Niki has come out empty handed and disappointed. There were so many times when Niki thought about throwing in the towel with finding her younger Mutant sister; it’s not that she didn’t love her sister or miss Norah because she did, she even missed the fights where they didn’t talk for days on end, she missed the arguing over what show to watch on TV or what radio station to listen to on the radio but after so many years of searching without a single sliver of a sign as to where her sister might have gone, well, it took a toll on a person. The only lead that they had ever gotten had come to them about three or so months after Norah had run away in the middle of the night, their mother’s spare car which Norah had used to get away, showed up being found in some random town in Indiana. At that point in time Niki had still sided with her mother for the most part when it came to Norah and them needing to take her to see a doctor so that she could be ‘fixed’ of her Mutant powers, but after a lot of self-evaluation and realization Niki knew without a doubt that herself and her mother had been wrong when it came to Mutants and wrong with how they dealt with Norah. 

Mutants were people too, this whole anti-Mutant stand that so many people seem more than willing to join was complete bullshit and was a form of racism but instead of it being blacks versus whites like it had been back in the 1960’s it was now Mutant’s versus non-Mutants. Sure, there definitely were Mutants who were a danger to people and society as a whole, who had dangerous powers that they could use to hurt and/or kill people without even all that much thought but humans weren’t all that different either. There were regular humans out in the world who were incredibly dangerous and who would kill without a second thought, without even thinking about if it was right or wrong and would use any means necessary to kill if they felt like it. Both Mutants and Humans had dangerous people, and both Humans and Mutants had good people in their ranks as well.

That phone call from that really odd and eccentric sounding guy in New York that Norah seemed to know, telling her about Norah and the fact that she had been injured in battle while in Sokovia fighting against those robots that were all over the news, well as morbid and dark as it sounded Niki was more than happy to hear the news. Happy wasn’t the right word but she was thankful to hear about Norah after nothing for nearly two weeks and she was happy to hear that Norah wasn’t dying or dead and instead was just healing up from the gunshot wounds that she had received in Sokovia. Whoever that guy was had invited herself, her husband David, her daughter Aurora, her mother and her dad to fly out to New York City at his expense so that they could be reunited with Norah, well in David and Aurora’s case they would be meeting Norah for the first time. All Niki had to do now was break the news to her mother about knowing where Norah was – David and Rora already knew about her and about the plan to fly out to New York.

“I found Norah.” Niki blurted out suddenly to her mother who she was having coffee with at Starbucks, her mother complained about the overpriced drinks but Niki was in love with their caramel macchiato. 

The moment Niki said those words, Cheri, Niki’s mother slowly raised her eyes from the cup of black coffee that was in her hands and looked at her eldest daughter in confusion, uncertain if she had heard her correctly. “What?” she questioned her and blinked a few times, as if thinking that she was sleeping. “What did you just say?” she demanded. 

Grasping her macchiato more tightly, Niki took a deep breath of stale air that seemed to circulate around the coffee shot and looked into her mother’s dark brown eyes, eyes that her sister shared with her mother. “I…I found Norah, or well, she found me technically.” She said with a small awkward laugh, a bit unsure of how she was supposed to go about this conversation or how to tell her mother how Norah got back into contact with her. 

“When? How?” Cheri demanded of her eldest daughter as she tried her best to calm down and to stop the swirling thoughts that were going about in her mind at the moment, this was not the time. “She..she’s alive? How did she know where you lived or what your phone number was? Is she okay?” she asked quickly and without pausing to breathe. 

At that Niki gave a small smile, “Yes, Norah is fine. I don’t know how she knew where I lived or what my phone number was and I don’t really care, what matters is that she contacted me. After almost eight years I was able to hear her voice again, it…god mom.” She said and shook her head, her emotions piling up in her already terribly emotional body. “She called me almost two weeks ago and told me that she was helping some friends of hers, she said that they were about to go and do something incredibly dangerous, something that she wasn’t sure she would end up surviving. She said that they were doing this to save not just the human race but the world from extinction, that this…..thing wanted to kill all humans. Norah called me because she didn’t want to have any regrets or something like that and wanted to reconcile and wanted to let me know that she missed me and hoped that if she was able to make it out alive that she’d be able to see me…us again one day.” She explained to her mother who had raised the cup of coffee to her face and took a drink and try as she might Niki was unable to read what exactly her mother was feeling at the moment. “Yesterday was the first time that I got any news on her since she had called me almost two weeks ago, some random guy called me and told me that Norah had been injured in Sokovia – that country over in Eastern Europe that was all over the news – he said that she had been shot five times and had then been in a medically induced a coma for eleven days after that and had been awake for about two days or so when he called me. He said that she was fine and was mostly healed up and would only have a few scars to show for it.” 

“Norah.” Cheri whispered unbelievably and closed her eyes for a moment, the fact that her daughter had been in danger and that she had been injured so badly that she had to be put into a medically induced a coma made Cheri want to cry and wish that she could have been there with her daughter to hope and pray and hug her and tell her that she loved her. “Wh…where is she?” she questioned, she needed to know where her youngest daughter was, she needed to see her daughter. 

Niki gave an internal sigh of relief, this conversation was going much more smoothly than she had first anticipated and she was more than thankful for that. “She’s been living in New York City. I don’t really know much else other than that, just htat she was injured while trying to help out in Sokovia and that she ended up getting shot a few times and this guy whose name I don’t even really know offered to pay for us to go to New York City…..to reunite with Norah.” She said softly and wiped at her eyes with the sleeve of her dark red coat. “After seven long years of searching we finally found her mom, we finally found Norah. Well she found us I guess, but now we know that she didn’t die or anything like that but that she was trying to good in the world and ended up on top and is alive. We’ll be able to see her again mom.” 

Rather than answering Cheri instead covered her face with her hands and bowed her head a bit; this was something that she dreamed about happening one day, that she hoped and prayed for ever since Norah had ran away…..well when she ended up not returning after a few weeks that is. Cheri knew she made a mistake when she decided to not file a police report for her missing daughter and when the police had asked her why she didn’t she didn’t really know how to answer that but she managed some sad excuse but she could see them judging her, thinking her a bad parent. Cheri knew that she had reacted badly when finding out that Norah was a Mutant, she had said things and wanted to force her to do things that were unsavory……she had straight out said to Norah that she wanted to take her to a specialized doctor so that she could get ‘fixed’ of her Mutant powers. That was not something she should have said, Cheri should have thought about things and done more research on Mutants than the few articles she managed to find online and she should not have tried to act as if she was trying to take away her daughter’s basic human rights. That was what she was insinuating too, Cheri wanted to force Norah to get a procedure done that would change who she was and change her DNA so that it was like a regular humans, that is something that would go against human rights activist very being – the ones that were pro-Mutants at least.

It was hard to talk about what happened with Norah and the revelation that she was a Mutant, something that was hard for her to admit to the rest of Cheri’s family members and most of them were accepting about the fact that Norah was a Mutant and that makes Cheri regret what she said and did so much more and made her wish she could turn back time to keep herself from doing what she did to her youngest daughter. Cheri hoped, god did she hope that Norah would give her a chance to show how much she regretted what she did and what she said, hoped that Norah would find forgiveness in her heart and would be able to try and have a relationship with her once again…..to have a mother/daughter relationship once again. There was no doubt that it wasn’t going to be easy, that it was going to be painful and hard and it would be a terribly messy process – rebuilding any broken relationship was like that – but Cheri was willing to suffer through the emotional pain and the messiness if it means she would be able to have a relationship with Norah once again. She’d do almost anything to regain that.   
“You said that she’s okay?” Cheri asked as she lowered her hands from her face and clenched her fists in front of her on top of the table and stared into Niki’s murky blue colored eyes. “That she’s alive and…and okay?” 

“Yes,” Niki said with a nod of her head. “At least that’s what the guy told me.” She responded, hoping against hope that the guy hadn’t lied to her and that Norah is in fact lying in a bed dying or something just as bad as that. “He said that Norah was shot and that she was on the way to being mostly healed up from her wounds which he didn’t really explain to me so I’m not sure what the extent is other than she was shot five times.” She told her mother and gave an apologetic half smile to her, running her hands through her medium length wavy hair Niki began rapping her fingers against the table. “I already told David and Rora that we would be taking that guy up on his offer to bring us to New York, we’re planning on leaving in the next day or so depending on you. I need to see her, I need to let her know all of the things I never took much time to tell her and I need to let her know that I don’t care if she’s a Mutant or not.” 

Cheri gave a smile at that and couldn’t help but agree with Niki, she too, needed to see Norah with her own two eyes to know that she was okay and so that she could tell her everything that she should have told her and to tell her how sorry she was for reacting the way that she had when finding out about her being a Mutant. 

“She’s twenty-two now.” Cheri said offhandedly, looking into her nearly empty coffee cup. “She’ll be twenty-three in six months, in April.” She said softly and wished that she hadn’t of missed so many birthdays, holidays and life events that were important to Norah such as graduating high school. 

“Yeah.” Niki intoned sadly, not quite sure if she should say anything else in response to that comment, if she should comfort her mother or if she should just sit there and let her mother come to terms with everything that has been said thus far. 

“I’m going.” Cheri said after a few moments of silence between the two females and looked at her daughter in complete seriousness; nothing would be able to stop her from heading to New York to see her daughter who she hasn’t seen in almost eight years. “I won’t wait any longer to see my daughter.” She said determinedly, a fierce look in her eyes at the thought of anyone attempting to stop her from going. “Is there a day picked out already for when we leave?” she questioned. 

At that Niki shook her head, “No. Me and David chose two days from now to give us time to let his job know what was going on, to get homework from Rora’s school and to see if you would be coming with.” She told her. 

Cheri was thankful that Niki would be going, as well as David and Rora who she hoped would act as buffers in case an argument or heated words were exchanged between Norah and Cheri, though she sincerely hoped it wouldn’t come to that. But Cheri now knew that she would have to let Tom know about what was happening and that he deserved to come with and see his daughter as well and if he said no to going, well, let’s just say he will end up changing his mind quickly. Tom was barely there for Cheri or their two girls, so the least he could do was come with them to New York which was being paid for by whoever Niki had talked to on the phone and see his daughter who he hasn’t seen since the girl was fifteen. 

“I’ll call your father and talk to him about coming with us.” Cheri said with a sigh, she would always love her ex-husband because of their girls but she didn’t particularly like the person he was anymore especially once he got heavy into the drinking and drug dealing, maybe seeing Norah again will change him but she wasn’t about to hold her breath. 

All Cheri could hope for at the moment was that this reunion that they would be having in less than a week went smoothly, that no fights broke out in the first few minutes of seeing one and another again and that she would eventually have a mother/daughter relationship with Norah once again.


	25. Chapter 25

Earlier in the day, while Norah had been eating breakfast with Pepper and Thor the latter of which had said that he would be needing to leave back for Asgard within a week or two – Loki’s scepter needed to be taken to be placed somewhere secure. Norah got the feeling that Thor just didn’t want it anywhere in reach of Tony, he did enough damage with it the first time around and who knows what he could do with it a second time. While Norah had been eating she convinced Wanda to go to her bedroom and to pick out a few comfortable clothes for her to change into that didn’t make it look like she was supposed to be working as a nurse or something at a hospital, she was sick and tired of wearing scrubs and just wanted to be in her own clothes. Thankfully Wanda was more than willing to do that for her and had ended up bringing back a simple dark purple tank top that had tribal designs on it, a pair of grey and black capri sweat pants that said Guinness on the butt of it and a loose, thigh length, long sleeved grey colored cardigan drape sweater. 

Once Norah was dressed and once everyone had left to go and do their own thing for a while, something which Norah had to force Pietro to do – he and Tony both were still acting a bit overprotective of her and seemed to be hovering whenever she did something which was really starting to get on her nerve’s but she’ll deal with that later. Right now was not the time for it, Norah was in the middle of escaping from her room in the Medical Wing which she has been trapped in for about five days now but felt more like a year, and yes at first she understood why she needed to stay in the room and rest and not leave the bed to do anything but shower and go to the bathroom but it was starting to get a bit ridiculous now. She could move with relative ease now, there was only slight twinges of pain once in a while and her bullet wounds were closed over now so there was no danger of her accidentally pulling one open if she moved the wrong way or anything like that.

No amount of begging or pleading was able to change Cho’s or any of the other’s minds, not even Natasha or Wanda was on her side so instead Norah decided to take things into her own hands and decided to leave when she had the chance. Well, more so when no one was around to tell her otherwise. 

“Hmm,” Norah said to herself as she stealthily made her way down the hallway of the Medical Wing and heading straight for the elevator so that she could head to a different level in the tower. “Friday?” Norah questioned.

“Yes Ms. Norah.” The accented Irish voice questioned pleasantly. 

Norah stepped onto the elevator that was at the other end of the Medical Wing, “Can you tell me where everyone is?” she asked, she wanted to be sure wherever she decided to head to in the tower that she had little to no chance of accidentally running into them and having them forcefully drag her back to her medical room.

“Ms. Romanoff is out of the tower at the moment, the Captain and Thor are in the gym with Pietro, Ms. Potts is at the office for most of the day, Wanda is in the library with Vision using one of Mr. Stark’s tablets to as Mr. Stark said ‘to become one with pop culture’ and Mr. Stark is in his lab.” Friday rattled off to Norah.

Hearing that Norah grinned to herself, with Pepper and Natasha out of the building and Steve, Pietro, Wanda and Vision elsewhere in the building it made now the perfect time to escape and go and head towards her dad’s lab to bother him and see what he was doing at the moment, hopefully nothing that would endanger the human race this time around.

“All right, thank you Friday.” Norah responded as she pressed the correct button for the floor that Tony’s lab was on.

There was an immediate response of, “Anytime Ms. Norah.” Friday said to her. 

Once on the level that Tony’s lab was on Norah slowly made her way through the hallway on silent bare feet – just because Friday said that the others were all occupied at the moment didn’t mean that it was completely true, they could have decided to do something else while the elevator was making its way to Tony’s level. Norah would much rather not run into anyone who would rat her out to Cho, at least Norah knew Tony wouldn’t do that seeing as he’s also attempted to escape from medical personnel before. 

So quietly as she could Norah snuck into Tony’s lab without him noticing (he’s distracted by welding some project of his together) and swung herself up onto one of the tables that was behind Tony and admittedly that action was a tad bit painful but nothing that she couldn’t deal with, she really needed to start working her muscles once again. So while sitting there Norah watched her pseudo-father at work and smiled tenderly; it was fascinating to watch Tony work on whatever project he had come up with to do that week, he got so completely focused and lost in what he did and put forth so much energy and effort into whatever he was inventing. It was awe inspiring at times to see how passionate and focused he got with some of his projects and it made Norah proud to call him her father even if it isn’t by birth. 

Tony, so consumed by what he was doing didn’t notice Norah walk in or notice her swing herself up onto one of his other work tables so when he had turned around to grab something from the said table she was sitting on cross legged he couldn’t help but jump a foot in the air, acting like a fifteen year old girl who was scared of the dark basement. 

“Bit jumpy Tony?” Norah asked as a wide grin spread across her face, toying with some bits and pieces of metal that were laying on the table beside her. 

At that Tony narrowed his eyes at her and pressed a hand to his chest, trying to slow his erratic heartbeat. “Jesus Christ kid, are you trying to kill me?” he asked her rhetorically, he thought with Norah being banned from using her powers that he wouldn’t suddenly finding her popping up in random places but apparently Norah was sneaky even without the temporary use of her powers. “I’m getting old over here you know, I’m much more likely to have a heart attack and die than I used to.” He pointed out to her. 

Norah grinned even wider at him when he said that to her, “Awwe don’t worry gramps, I won’t let you die yet. I haven’t bothered you nearly enough yet, there’s so many things that I still need to get back at you for.” She teased him playfully. 

Tony sent her a dark look for the gramps comment but still gave a half smile; with how Norah acted and talked at times, and how playful and sarcastic she was and her all around attitude towards many things it truly was easy to see how many people thought that she could have been Tony’s actual daughter rather than just a girl he took under his wing and claimed as his daughter. 

“Aren’t you supposed to be in the Medical Wing? You know, doing that healing thing.” Tony questioned, a brow raised and his arms crossed over his chest in a half-hearted scolding manner. 

“Right, because you’d do as you’re told and stay in that room for as long as I have.” Norah said to Tony sarcastically as she rolled her eyes at him. “You wouldn’t even be able to last three days in there let alone the five days I’ve been forced to do. I needed to get out of that room before I lose my mind.” She told him with a pointed look and set the scraps of metal she was playing with down beside her. “I’m starting to go batshit crazy in there, there are only so many TV shows and Netflix I can watch, and so much reading and playing on the computer I can do. Besides,” she said to him. “I’m mostly fine.” 

As much as Tony knew he should probably admonish Norah for escaping from the Medical Wing and for not telling anyone and as much as he knew Pepper would have wanted him to march her straight back to the Medical Wing – he couldn’t. It would be awfully hypocritical of him and well, like Norah said he would have done the exact same thing in her position. He hated hospitals with a passion and hated being stuck in one place, Tony’s personality simply didn’t allow him to stay in one place for too long even more so when he has nothing to do while being stuck in the hospital. And Norah being Norah, well she needed to do things as well so to not lose her mind to either going crazy or from complete boredom and sure, her usual sort of things that she did to take up a majority of her time involved her computer be it doing some writing for stories she did for fun, reading or researching random things online or translating or whatever came to her mind really but after being cooped up for so long Tony’s pretty sure that Norah wanted to do something that didn’t involve any of those things. Norah probably just wanted to get outside and walk around the city for a while but she more than likely knew that was not on the list of things to do as of yet, no matter how rebellious she was feeling.

“Norah.” Tony said as he gave her a pointed look that made him look oddly parental for a moment. “You were shot five times kid, you kinda didn’t have a choice of how long you were stuck in there.” He said to her as he wiped his dirty and greasy hands on a rag which really didn’t make his hands any less dirty.

Hearing that Norah pursed her lips for a moment before she waved a hand flippantly in Tony’s direction, “Tis but a scratch!” She sing songed to him and then picked up a smaller invention of Tony’s that was on the table she was sitting on and studied it for a moment before putting it back down.

For a moment Tony just stood there and stared at Norah, “Did….did you just quote Monty Python and the Holy Grail to me?” he questioned a bit dubiously, cocking his head to the side.

“Yup, basically.” Norah answered simply and then stuck her tongue out at Tony in a childish manner. 

“Really Norah?” Tony said with a hint of exasperation in his voice; the girl was shot five times not even three weeks ago and then she decided to escape from her room in the Medical Wing and now was quoting Monty Python and the Holy Grail to him and the part that she was quoting was from the part where the black knight got all of his limbs cut off, Tony truly wondered about that girl sometimes and wonder if his eccentric tendencies and insanity rubbed off on her a bit. “I wonder about you some days.” 

Norah shrugged at that, “I wonder about me too.” She joked, a playful smirk on her face. 

Tony shook his head at Norah and went back to working on his project, a comfortable silence settling between the two for a few minutes before Tony decided to break it and ask Norah why exactly she had decided to come up to his lab from the Medical Wing and not go and bother someone else. 

“So,” Tony said as he continued tinkering with whatever it was that he was working on at the moment. “Is there a reason why you decided to come and see me?” he questioned as he grabbed a wrench that he needed out of Norah’s hands and ignored the pout that she gave him. 

“What? I need a reason to see my wonderful, genius, kickass father?” Norah questioned, a brow raised. “I can’t just come and see the man who took me in, who treated me like a daughter, who paid for my clothes and schooling and acted like an all-around father just because I wanted to see him?” she asked, feigning insult. 

“Norah, I love you but I seriously doubt the first place you would have gone after escaping from the Medical Wing would have been to see me.” Tony responded blandly, a knowing look on his face.

In fact, Tony was more than certain that out of everyone that now lived at Stark Tower that Norah would have either gone to see Pietro, Wanda or Steve…well probably not the Capsicle seeing as he would have taken her back to the Medical Wing, but she’d probably go to see Natasha too, she’d probably congratulate her on escaping without anyone noticing or notifying Cho. So it would have been either the twins or Natasha, but Tony doubted that it would have been him first and as much as he tried to hide it and not let Pepper or the others realize, that little fact hurt him. Norah was truly his daughter no matter if her birth family was going to be coming to the tower within the next day or two – Pepper knew exactly what day and the time but Tony didn’t pay attention to those sort of details. Now Norah was spending a good chunk of her time with Pietro and talking about him and being all lovey dovey with him and Tony didn’t like it whatsoever, Norah was his daughter first and now this kid literally swooped in out of the blue and captured Norah’s attention…..it wasn’t something he was particularly fond of.   
“Don’t sell yourself short old man.” Norah joked as she jumped up and off of the table she was sitting on and strode the few feet over to Tony and bumped her shoulder against his and looked at him. “But yeah, I kinda wanted to talk to you.” She said sheepishly. 

Tony couldn’t help but laugh at that, “See, told you that you wanted something from me.” He joked at her and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “Boom. I win.”

“Ugh! Tony! You’re all greasy, let go of me.” Norah whined at him. “Do you have any idea the effort it takes to look this good and make it look like I wasn’t trying?” she questioned but continued to let him give her a side arm hug, Tony knew that she really didn’t care about getting dirty or not, well, unless it was one of her favorite plaid shirts. She had a thing for plaid. 

For a moment Norah closed her eyes and leant her head into Tony’s shoulder and just breathed for a moment. She’s missed moments like this – father/daughter moments with Tony – something which have been hard to have with her being unconscious for almost two weeks straight and then her being confined to her bed in the Medical Wing except for taking going to the bathroom or taking a show and even that had been medically assisted by either Cho or one of her personnel that she had brought with from Seoul. 

“I wanna talk to you about mine and Pietro’s ‘weird ass flirting/dating thing’ as you call it.” Norah said as she pulled away from Tony and looked at him with a smirk and pulled one of his work stools towards her and hopped up onto it while looking at Tony expectantly.

Norah knew that Tony was about to whine and complain about her wanting to talk about this but it was something that needed to happen, she saw the dark looks and glared that he sent towards Pietro a good portion of the time and she knew that he said things to Pietro though Pietro would never tell her what they were since Tony was so important to her but she knew Tony and knew they were either something insulting or some sort of snide comment that Pietro more than likely didn’t even earn. 

“Awwe come on Norah, do we-“ Tony began but before he could say much else Norah cut him off with a sharp look on her face. 

“Yes.” Norah said and then slapped a hand over Tony’s mouth when he made to disagree with her, she supposed that if she got desperate enough she could always have Friday call Pepper home from the office and say that it was an emergency and she’s more than certain that Pepper would only be somewhat miffed at her for doing that and she would still end up keeping Tony in line for her. “Look, Tony, this isn’t exactly something that I want to talk with you about and well, this is going to be really weird and awkward and well, you’re not my ideal person of who I would talk to about relationship related things with but this conversation kinda needs to happen.” She said to him. “I much prefer talking to Kitty or Natasha or Pepper or even Clint since he’s kind of an honorary girl at times but-“ 

Hearing where this was going Tony gave a sigh and pushed Norah’s hand away from his mouth, “Norah, do we have to? I get that you’re with Speedy Gonzales, I don’t like it really but as Pepper said I don’t really have any say. And even if I did you wouldn’t listen to me, you’re too stubborn and hardheaded to listen to anything I would have to say.” He said and then ran his hands through his hair before his lighter colored brown eyes locked onto Norah’s dark colored ones. “Besides, everyone says that you two being together is a good thing, that he makes you happy and a whole bunch of other shit that I just ignored and pretended to be listening to. Wasn’t really in the mood to hear them talk about you and the Sokovian being together.”

Norah huffed at Tony and narrowed her eyes threateningly at him, “Yes Tony, deal with it, we’re taking about this and I’m not about to give an another option so stop acting like a baby.” She said in frustration at his whining like a teenager. “If I have to I will Blink us to somewhere else, somewhere that you’ve never been to and can’t escape from talking to me. But,” she said, a smirk on her face. “Do you really want to force me into doing that, after all, Cho did tell me that I shouldn’t be using my powers quite yet but I will if I have to Tony.” 

When Norah had said that Tony just grumbled unhappily and crossed his arms like a three year old child, “Fine.” He conceded. 

“Thank you, dad.” Norah said to Tony and then leant up and kissed the scruff on his cheek, he really did need to shave or at least clean up a bit, he was starting to get that semi-homeless look that looked good on some people but not so much on Tony. “I know you don’t like Pietro, and at first I know it was because he had sided with Ultron but dad, we’ve defeated Ultron, Pietro and Wanda switched sides and helped us defeat him.” 

Tony just frowned at that, “Yeah, well while he was with the enemy, you kissed him and you two were flirting.” He accused. 

“Okay, I will admit that was probably not the smartest of things to do.” Norah said to Tony with a half grimace. “If it had been anyone else I probably would have ended up dead or something but Tony, you can’t tell me that you haven’t done something just as iffy as that.” She said.

“They never were on the side with someone who was trying to kill my friends and family.” Tony said snidely to her. 

“Okay, you get points for that but you can’t say that something along those lines hasn’t happened to you before. You’re Tony Stark after all.” Norah teased, a small smile on her face which Tony gave a small smile in response, it was hard to not smile at Norah when she talked like that and joked with him. 

Tony looked up at the ceiling before responding to Norah, “I’ve made horrible choices in my life and the moment when I finally decided to get my shit together was after I was captured in the Middle East, after I got that shrapnel imbedded in my chest.” He told her as he tapped his fingers against the table in front of him. “I slept with whoever I wanted, drank until I couldn’t remember my name and all these awards I got for advances in technology or whatever I didn’t really care about. I don’t really care about them all that much now, but I understand the importance of going to them at least.” He said to her, he hated award parties where everyone was schmoozing one and another. “Pepper helped me change after the Middle East and somehow and then you came along and called Fury Patchy and geeze, I didn’t realize that I was missing anything in my life until you came along kid. Pepper made my life better but you just made both of our lives better. You’re my daughter and to Pepper you’re like the little sister she never had.”

“And how does that have to do with Pietro, Tony?” Norah questioned, she was happy that he was willing to share things with her of course and anything she really wanted to now she could probably google or ask Pepper but hearing it from the source was nice. 

“I don’t want you to make a mistake and date someone like me.” Tony said to her.

Norah couldn’t help but laugh a bit at that, “Are you insinuating that Pietro is like you Tony?” she asked with a giggle. “Because seriously, no one else in the world can be like you Tony and I’m pretty sure Pietro is pretty different from you and isn’t exactly wanting to just sleep with me because if he was he wouldn’t have waited by my side while I was unconscious or be willing to take our relationship slowly.” She said to him, turning a bit red at talking about Pietro being willing to wait to sleep with her. 

“Ugh, Norah!” Tony all but screamed at her. “I didn’t want to hear that or visualize that or think about anything that has to do with you and Speedy getting it on.” He said in disgust and pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes hoping it would erase the images that had popped up. 

As much as Norah wanted to be apologetic for doing that to Tony she wasn’t really, he did deserve it with how he’s been treating Pietro and the obvious dislike he had for him when he didn’t deserve it. Because if Tony was able to accept Wanda without much fuss then he should be able to accept Pietro as well, but no, because Pietro and Norah had a secret romance thing going on during the whole Ultron situation and were now dating Tony had to make sure things were complicating. 

“Why Tony?” Norah asked as she looked at him pleadingly, needing to know why and wanting to get this fixed so things don’t get awkward later on down the road. “Why? I don’t get this, I mean if it was one of those hoity toity guys that come to those Stark Industry parties that you make me go to once in a while that would make sense. But not this.”

“Because he’s not good enough!” Tony said to her, his eyes flashing angrily. 

Norah made a scream of frustration, “I get that you think that but you’re not telling me why.” She said to him and walked a few paces away from him. “Pietro helped us with Ultron, he fought alongside us, I nearly got shot at that shipyard but Pietro pulled me out of the way before it could happen. He may have chosen Ultron at the beginning but he was misguided, him and Wanda both were by what Ultron was offering. Ultron and Hydra both tricked Wanda and Pietro.” She said to him and was really wishing for some vodka or something at the moment, somedays alcohol was needed when dealing with Tony. “Is it him as a person that’s not good enough or is he not good enough because it’s me he’s dating?” 

It was at that moment that Tony quieted up and looked away from Norah with a huff; some days Tony wondered why he let himself be surrounded by all of these women who could see right through him so easily. He really wasn’t doing himself any favors. Norah was right though, Tony didn’t like Pietro just because of who he was and from what he could tell the kid was amusing but the fact that he was with his daughter was what pushed his buttons the most. Norah has dated people in the three or so years that she has been living with Tony and Pepper, Tony has even met some of those guys but in the end none of them would last more than a month or two at the most but Pietro was different from those guys. 

Tony knew that Pietro wasn’t going to just be a one or two month guy or even just a six month guy but that he and Norah could make it work long term, he could see it in the way that they looked at one and another and the way they interacted with one and another and as much as Tony hated to admit it he could see how happy Norah was to be around Pietro and spend time with him. Norah’s eyes sparkled more or however Pepper had described it as, she laughed more, she teased and bantered with Pietro which meant the kid was smart enough to keep up with Norah’s witty and sarcastic sense of humor and Norah was also the only person who could probably keep up with Pietro. They’d be good together but Tony didn’t want to admit it because that meant that he would be losing Norah and he was already having Norah’s birth family come here and so it was a lot of things that were going on at one time and he needed someone to blame and hate. 

“Nor-“ Tony began as he looked at Norah.

“Tony,” Norah interrupted softly, gently laying her hand on Tony’s forearm and looked up at him warmly. “I’ll always be your daughter, nothing will be able to change that not even the fact that my sad excuse of a birth father is going to be here in only a few days.” She said a tad bit bitterly, wishing that it would have been just her mother, her sister and her sister’s family that were coming to see her. “No matter what is said and done between me and my birth family you will always be my father, the first number one man in my life. And holy fuck, this is really starting to sound cheesy.” She said gaining a snort of amusement from Tony at her curse. “I was never all that emotional of a person or someone that would talk about their emotions or how they were feeling to anyone, not even my close friends and therapy changed that for me. But Tony, I love you and I think of you as my father and you will always be my father as far as I am concerned and Tom…..Tom’s not important in any fashion to me. And you don’t have to worry about me being taken by Pietro or anything, it’s not like we all don’t live in the same building where you can see me whenever you want to. Besides, I’m pretty sure Rogue and Kitty would kick my ass if I decided to ignore them for a boy and well, I’d rather not be on the receiving end of Rogue’s powers.” Norah said off hand with a shudder. “I know this is new for you, me dating someone and me and Pietro being so intense this fast but Pietro and I have a connection and I care more for him then I’ve cared for any of the other guys I’ve dated in my life Tony. You are important to me but so is Pietro and I need you to accept him and accept the concept of me and him. He’s my boyfriend Tony.”

Tony knew these things already, he knew that Norah would only ever think of him as her father and that Tom was just some random guy that she got a few of her gene’s from but not someone that would ever have an impact in her life. He knew that he didn’t have to worry about Norah being taken away from him by Pietro and he didn’t have to worry about never seeing Norah again but he was being an idiot and couldn’t help but think those things.   
“I know, I know all of those things Norah.” Tony relented with a heavy sigh and closed his eyes for a moment. “I know that you’ll always be my daughter and I know that we can see one and another whenever we want to. It’s just, I wasn’t expecting this to happen so suddenly, you’re too young to date or at least date seriously.” He said to her dramatically, making Norah look at him as if he had grown a second head.

“Tony,” Norah said looking at him in amusement. “I’m twenty-two years old dude, I’ll be twenty-three in six months I’m more than old enough to have serious relationships. I’m an adult who can adult at times. Promise.” She told him as she did the scouts honor sign. “Look, I don’t really expect you to accept Pietro with opened arms or anything or to have guys night or be bros or whatever but at least try to be somewhat nice, I’ll even accept borderline friendly.” She said and looked at him hopefully, sticking her bottom lip out and everything. 

Tony knew that he couldn’t say no to Norah, well except for that time she asked to try one of the suits, but otherwise he really couldn’t say no to her. He loved her too much. “I will try my best Norah, it’ll take time. But I love you and I want you to be happy even if it is with a former Hydra allied/Ultron allied speedster.” 

“I’ll take what I can get.” Norah said simply and then stood up and wrapped her arms around Tony in a thankful hug.

After the two settled that between them Norah hopped up onto the table that Tony had whatever project he was working on at and watched her father work on…whatever it was he was trying to make. Tony did try and explain to her what he was doing but all Norah did was stare at him blankly for a few moments before she smiled and nodded, she did understand a few things he said about circuits and robotics and was all right when it came to robotics since Tony had forced her to learn so she could help him with his suits or whatever once in a while but everything else went straight over her head. 

The comfortable silence that settled between father and daughter only lasted for so long before there was the sound of running feet and the door to Tony’s lab burst open, Steve standing there with a worried and frantic look on his face. “Norah’s missing! Cho went to her room and she-“ stopping suddenly when he noticed that Norah was sitting on the table beside Tony. “Isn’t missing apparently.” He said a bit lamely and looked at Norah admonishingly. “You’re not supposed to be out of the Medical Wing until Doctor Cho says you are physically able.” He said to her. “Doctor Cho went in there and you were gone, no note or anything.” 

“I got bored.” Norah said with a nonchalant shrug of her shoulders as she looked up at Steve’s taller form “Sorry.” 

At that Steve shook his head at Norah and rubbed at his temples, “Norah, you really remind me of my friend Bucky at times, you know that. Especially with what you just said.” He said with a small sad smile but before Norah could ask about Bucky and his search for him Steve continued lecturing Norah for her great escape. “You know you can’t just leave because you get bored Norah, you’re in the Medical Wing because you were shot multiple times and need time to heal up before you try moving too much.” He explained to her. 

Norah looked up at Steve, “I’m fine Steve, promise. I only have minor discomforts if that even.” She defended herself and crossed her arms under her chest stubbornly, really starting to get sick of being babied by the majority of everyone. “Seriously, you all are overreacting. Tell me-“

Before Norah had a chance to finish what she had been saying to Steve there was a sudden blur that rushed into the lab and stopped next to Steve, “I have not found-“ Pietro began to say and then stopped himself when he saw Norah. “You have found her.” He said and then looked from Tony, to Steve and then back to Norah and gave a small frown. “What are you doing here moj mali bik? You should be in room, resting. Not walking around tower, Doctor Cho worried.” He said and then looked her up and down to be absolutely certain that she had not jostled her wounds and put herself in needless pain but from the looks of it she was moving perfectly fine and didn’t seem to be feeling any pain, at least from the expression on her face she didn’t seem to be. 

“See,” Norah said in frustration as she flung her arm out towards Pietro and Steve and looked at Tony haughtily. “I told you they were overreacting.”

“Norah,” Steve began once again. “You really shouldn’t be out and about, Doctor Cho specifically advised against it you know. It’s for your benefit.” He told her.

When he said that Norah just rolled her eyes childishly, “Yeah well, she can tell me all she wants that she wants me to stay in that damn room but it’s not going to keep me in there. If I escaped once don’t you think I’ll be able to do it again.” She told him giving him a look. 

Steve shook his head at her, “Norah, Cho is looking for you. She wants to do a check up to see where you are at in the healing process.” He said to her. 

“Fine.” Norah said unhappily and before she had a chance to hop on down from the table she was sitting on Pietro appeared in front of her and offered her a hand with a small, charming smile. “You know, you’re awfully lucky you’re cute and have a nice accent.” She muttered to him as she took his hand and let him help her down to the ground.

“I am happy that you find me cute and my accent attractive.” Pietro teased as he laced his fingers through hers and led her out of the lab and towards the elevator that was on this level of the tower so that they could head back to the Medical Wing.

Norah grudgingly followed Pietro, “I never said your accent was attractive,” she teased back to him. “I said you had a nice accent, there’s a difference you know.” She pointed out to him as she gently bumped her hips against his, Pietro may be taller and stronger than her but Norah did have meat on her bones and curves and if she put enough force behind a hip bump she is more than certain she would make someone stumble a few feet at least.

At that Pietro gave a small laugh, “Yes, I did hear. Nice, attractive very similar that they mean same thing basically.” He said to her playfully as he dragged her into the elevator and pulled her back flush against his chest and then leaned his head down until his chin rested on her shoulder lightly. “There is not big difference, is there?” he asked huskily as he slowly kissed along Norah’s neck. 

“Uh…” Norah said quiet pitifully.

Norah really did try and concentrate on the conversation she and Pietro were having, or rather the bantering conversation that the two of them were having but Pietro kissing up and down her neck like he was was a tad bit distracting. A welcome distraction but a distraction nonetheless. So rather than trying to concentrate on whatever Pietro and her had been talking about Norah instead turned in Pietro’s arms and wrapped her arms around his neck and pushed herself up onto her tip toes to more easily reach Pietro’s lips – he was a good six or seven inches taller than her. Pietro smiled at her playfully and pulled back before she was able to reach his lips to which she made a whining sound in the back of her throat before she grasped him around the neck a bit forcefully and pulled his head back towards hers and very gently bit at his lip a bit before pressing her lips against his, Pietro cupped the back of her curly haired head with one hand while the other gently snuck underneath her shirt and traced a line along the rim of her sweat pants and stepped closer to her so that their bodies were pressed closely to one and another. 

Pietro pushed his lips more forcefully into Norah’s, deepening the kiss that they were sharing and playfully bit at her lip to which she made a pleasurable sound in the back of her throat when he did so. Slowly, in case Norah didn’t want him to do so or if it was moving too fast for her, Pietro moved his one hand that was under her shirt slowly from her back and towards the front of her torso and then carefully edged it upwards and traced the outline of some of her ribs and smiled into the kiss when he felt Norah shiver at the contact. 

In the background both Norah and Pietro heard the elevator stop and ding at whatever level they were at but neither paid too much attention to what was going on around them, well that was until there was the sound of a throat clearing to which both Norah and Pietro very reluctantly pulled away from one and another. Some people may get embarrassed about getting caught or about PDA but Pietro didn’t really care, if he wished to kiss his girlfriend in public then he was going to do it no matter what anyone else said.

“Hello Pietro.” Wanda said with a hint of a giggle in her voice. “Hello Norah. I see they have found you.” She said to her friend. 

Norah blushed a bit at being caught by her boyfriend’s sister but returned the smile, “Uh, yeah. They found me.” She said a bit awkwardly and rubbed the back of her neck. 

“It is nice to see you moving about.” Vision said suddenly making Norah jump, not realizing that he had entered the elevator along with Wanda. “I am sorry I have not visited you in the Medical Wing, but there are so many things that I must learn about this world, about….existing in this world.” He told her in a rather formal tone of voice, they really needed to work on that with him and letting him know it’s okay to be casual and informal if he wants to be.

“Oh, it’s fine. I’m pretty boring while I’m stuck up in that room. I read and watch TV for the most part.” Norah responded to Vision, who made her a bit nervous and unsure of how to act around. 

“Still,” Vision said as he looked at her intently, sincerity in his eyes. “I truly am sorry for not visiting, I should have. I hope you can forgive me.” He said to her as the elevator began to move once again. 

“It’s fine, promise.” Norah said to him and leaned back into Pietro who had his hands resting on either side of her hips. “Wanda,” Norah said as she looked at her newly made friend. “We’re still on for girl’s night, right?” she asked hopefully, a look of excitement on her face.

Immediately Wanda responded with an excited nod, her hair flying into her face a bit. “Yes! Nothing can make me cancel this girls night you tell me about, I cannot wait. We will watch movies and eat many junk foods?” she questioned. “That is what Natasha told me they do.” 

At that Norah grinned, “Yes, and sweets and cheesy/funny movies and romantic movies and really anything we want to watch.” She told her, it’s been so long since she’s been able to have a girl’s night and the ones during university didn’t really count since the girls she would hang out with would usually all be studying.

“This is our stop moj mali bik.” Pietro whispered into her ear before he pulled her out of the elevator and waved good bye to Wanda and Vision and then continued leading Norah down the hall back towards where her room in the Medical Wing was located at.

~_~_~_~._~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~._~_~_~_~._~_~_~_~_~._~_~_~._~_~_~._~_~_~

Norah and Pietro were now back in her medical room with Doctor Cho who sighed heavily when she saw Norah and gave her a pointed look for the fact that she had escaped or rather left her room when no one was around to stop her – though she could always Blink away if she really wanted to leave. And now Cho was checking over Norah’s wounds making sure they were healing within the right time frame, if they didn’t look like they were making any progress that was when they would need to worry but from the looks of things Norah’s wounds were healing quite nicely and would only have minor pain and muscle soreness for the next three to six weeks depending. 

“All right Pietro,” Cho said to the Sokovian who had turned around when Cho had to undress Norah a bit to get a better look at her wounds. “You can turn back around now.” She said to him. 

Pietro turned around and leant up against the wall of the room and looked at Norah with a smirk and waggled his eyebrows at her to which she responded with a challenging look and winked at him before she turned and looked at Cho.

“So,” Norah said while looking at Cho expectantly. “What’s the verdict? Tell me I can go back to being in my own room and not be stuck in here all the time anymore.” she said in a desperate fashion, hoping against hope that Cho would agree to let her wander around the tower instead of being confined to this room here in the Medical Wing, though truthfully Norah would escape again if she told her she couldn’t leave yet. 

Cho took the clipboard that was attached to Norah’s bed before taking a seat in a chair that was beside the bed, “I ordered you to stay in bed for a good reason you realize – to give you time to heal. Especially the wound in your lung, if we had not put you into a medically induced a coma you would have been in an incredible amount of pain.” She said to her seriously and then flipped through a few pages on the clipboard and then looked back up at Norah. “I will say that I prefer you to stay in here a day or two longer but I can tell from today that that would probably not be happening so please, take it easy at least. And if you are going to be wandering around the tower aimlessly please bring someone with you, just in case.” 

“I won’t, I promise.” Norah agreed to quickly, she was finally free with the permission from the doctor. 

“Now I want to do a few motion exercises just to be certain that you aren’t losing motion in your muscles and that they are able to move like they should.” Cho said to Norah whose shoulders slumped a bit at having to stay in the Medical Wing longer than anticipated but agreed to it nonetheless, what’s a little while longer compared to the five days she had already been there. 

So slowly Cho worked Norah’s leg that had been shot and went through a few different motions with it, then did a few breathing exercises to make sure the wound in lung had healed and then listened to it as Norah did a few breathing exercises and then did a few more that worked her body as a whole as well and finally after that Cho had told Norah to be careful but that she was free and didn’t need to stay in the Medical Wing any longer. 

“Thanks!” Norah said happily and jumped off of the bed that Cho had her laying on and ten basically danced over to Pietro, grabbed his arm and dragged him out of the medical wing quite forcefully earning an amused chuckle from the silver/blonde haired man. 

As Norah continued on dragging Pietro down the hall, fully intending on getting out of the Medical Wing as fast as was humanly possible Pietro suddenly stopped her, “Wait, Norah.” He said and looked down into her confused face before he cupped her face with both of his hands and leaned down a few inches and kissed her softly. “I am happy you are free.” 

“Me too,” Norah said with a soft half-smile on her face. “Now,” she said looking at him with a look of pure determination. “Let’s get the fuck out of here before they start moving my belongings from my room down to the one here.” She said and moved to tug him after her but he stood still.

“Where is it that you wish to go?” Pietro asked her.

Norah pursed her lips for a moment and tapped her finger against her chin before she replied, “To the kitchen/common room.” She answered definitively. 

When Norah had said that Pietro smirked widely at her for a moment but before she had a chance to back away from him or ask what he was smirking about she was suddenly swept up into Pietro’s arms and he was zipping his way throughout the halls of the tower and through the stairwells until they had finally arrived in the middle of the common room/kitchen level within thirty seconds or less of her telling Pietro that was where she wanted to go. 

Norah grinned widely, “God, that never gets old. I love doing that.” She said to him before she leaned up while still in his arms and kissed the underside of his scruffy jaw and then jumped out of his arms and all but pranced her way over to the kitchen – a very nice sized kitchen too – and began to make herself a cup of tea which is something that she felt like she hasn’t had in years. 

Sure, Natasha makes a pretty good cup of tea and makes it damn close to how Norah likes it but it’s not the same as Norah herself making it, she had a system of how she made it and a there was a science to how much cream to how much sugar she put in her tea to make it absolutely perfect. The others had made fun of her once in a while for how serious she felt about tea but she knew it was all in fun, she was passionate about tea and she was okay with that. 

“What are you doing?” Pietro asked as he leaned his elbows on the kitchen island and watched Norah walk around the kitchen and fill up a kettle before setting it on the stove and waiting for it to boil. 

Norah glanced back at Pietro as she reached up to one of the cupboards and grabbed two cups from the top, a shelf which she barely could reach with her fingertips but she made it work. “Making tea. Do you want some?” she questioned as she turned towards him and set the mugs down on the kitchen island in front of her. 

“Tea?” Pietro questioned. “You are making tea?” he asked.

At that Norah nodded her head, “Yes Pietro, I am making tea. Would you like some.” She said to him slowly, as if he had suddenly lost a few brain cells. 

“I do not think I have ever had tea, is it like coffee?” Pietro questioned with curiosity. 

When he said that Norah gasped loudly, as if he had just told her that the sky was green and the ocean purple. “How…just….what.” she gave a rather dramatic sigh and shook her head before looking him straight in the eye. “I’m going to be introducing you and your sister to a lot of new things, aren’t I?” she asked. 

“Yes, I do think so.” Pietro answered in amusement at her exasperation. “You will make me this…tea of yours?” he asked.

Norah just smiled and nodded at him and then proceeded to make tea for the both of them once the tea kettle had boiled and went through the motions of putting cream and sugar in the tea and not too much for Pietro since he apparently doesn’t like his drinks too sweet and actually prefers to have his coffee with just cream and no sugar. That little fact made Norah shake her head and call him a heathen, in a loving fashion of course. Handing Pietro his tea, Irish Breakfast Tea which was Norah’s favorite, the two headed into the living room portion which was only about ten feet away from the kitchen but of course, Pietro being Pietro he sped over to the living room with his super human speed and stretched out his taller form along the couch which was only a bit longer than a loveseat, his back being propped up by a pillow that was lying behind him. 

“And where am I supposed to sit, hmm?” Norah questioned and silently applauded Pietro for seizing the opportunity. “The floor?”

At that Pietro shook his head, “No, you will not need to sit on floor, you sit here with me.” He said and patted his lap invitingly. “I will not do anything you do not ask of me.” He said to her flirtatiously and waggled his eyebrows at her once again.

Norah let a small giggle out, “And how can I say no to that face.” She said and set her tea cup down on the coffee table that was in front of the couch and then proceeded to make her way into Pietro’s lap, her feet stretched out in front of her and resting on the coffee table that probably cost at least six hundred dollars and was now being used as a makeshift foot rest – Pepper would be appalled. 

The two ended up turning on some random TV show for background noise – something on the History channel which plays more reality TV than history anymore – and ignored it for the most part and instead paid attention to one and another and had decided on playing a game of sorts, 20 questions to get to know one and another better. As childish as the game sounded it was a great way to get to know one and another better.

“What’s your favorite color?” Norah asked as she sipped at her tea and looked into Pietro’s blue colored eyes. 

“Blue.” Pietro answered as he ran his fingers slowly up and down Norah’s sweater covered arm. 

“What is your favorite color?” Pietro responded.

At that Norah narrowed her eyes at him, “You can’t reuse a question, that’s not how this game works.” She told him sternly to which Pietro just smiled innocently at her. “But, my favorite color is either turquoise or teal I love them both.” She answered and then bit her lip while deep in thought, trying to think of the perfect question to ask Pietro. “What is your favorite food?” she asked. “Like favorite meal of all time and dessert.” She added.

Pietro smiled fondly and played with the ends of Norah’s curly hair, “There is dish back home called Đuveč, it is baked in oven with many vegetables, herbs and spices and meal. My mother and father, when we could afford it, would buy lamb and make this dish for my sister and I. Wada liked dish too but not as much as me, I savored every bite I got of it, took as long as could to finish it. I liked it very much but have not had in years, Wanda and I have not had stable home or much money to have it.” He said with a frown on his face, hating that though he was supposed to protect and provide for his sister that he had barely been able to do so.

“What about the dessert? What’s your favorite dessert?” Norah asked as she leaned into Pietro a bit more. 

“It would definitely be Knedle, it is how you say….dumpling, yes, it is like dumpling. Is made from potato dough and is filled with fruit and sugar and is dropped into boiling water until they float then they are coated with sugar on top. Veoma ukusna.” He said to her and then took a sip of the tea that Norah had made for him, it was…different then he was expecting and personally he preferred coffee but he would drink this tea of Norah’s if there was nothing else around. “What is your favorite animal?” he questioned.

“Otter.” Norah said without a moment’s hesitation. 

At that Pietro looked at Norah with a raised brow, “An otter?” he questioned. “Not a dog or a cat or a horse but an otter?” 

Norah nodded, “Yes an otter, I freaking love those damn adorable animals. I could watch them for hours and not get bored; watching them eating fish, swimming in water playing with one and another. I love them so freaking much.” She told him with an excitable look on her face at the thought of otters. “And don’t even get me started on baby otters, they’re so fluffy.” 

“You are definitely not like the other girls, are you moj mali bik?” Pietro questioned with a smile as he nuzzled the side of her neck. 

“Mmm,” Norah hummed. “I try not to be. It gets boring then.” She replied, shrugging her shoulders a bit and closed her eyes when she felt Pietro lightly kiss where her shoulder and neck met and make his way up the length of her neck until he reached her jaw. “H..hey, stop distracting me. We’re supposed to be asking one and another questions.” She told him and very reluctantly pulled away from him. 

Pietro gave a small whine and rested his forehead against her neck for a few moments, disappointed that she had stopped him but relented to what she said and stopped distracting her as she had said. “Yes Norah, I’m sorry that my kissing is distracting you that you are unable to form a question.” He sassed to her.

Norah stuck her tongue out at him and then pinched him playfully in the thigh, “Shush you.” She said to him. “What were your parent’s names?” she asked softly, knowing that this was a sore subject for Pietro who had lost his parent’s at such an early age because Tony decided to deal weapons with whoever was willing to pay the price. 

For a moment Pietro closed his eyes sadly, not a day goes by that he doesn’t think of his parents and the life he and Wanda could have had if they hadn’t of died, if they hadn’t of been killed by weapons created and dealt by Tony Stark. He now understands what Tony Stark had done and knew that it was not completely the mad geniuses fault, that Tony didn’t really pay attention to who he was dealing his weapons to nor did he know what those people were going to be using those weapons for and Pietro has forgiven the man but he will always remember whose weapons it had been that had killed his parents and that had ultimately changed his and Wanda’s life. 

“My mother’s name was Malina and she looks very much like Wanda; thin, dark hair, dark eyes. My mother would do anything for me and Wanda, she helped others in neighborhood and once in a while would invite families over to eat with us even though we were poor as well but she cared and wanted them to know that there were people who cared about them.” He said and smiled at remembering his mother who he missed so desperately. “My father’s name was Luka, he also had dark hair which I had had before experiments, he was tall and for many years I thought he was strongest man in world. He taught me that no matter what I must always make sure to take care of Wanda, to protect her even when she does not want it. They had to work a lot to keep a roof over our heads and to keep us fed, we rarely had new clothes and some make care about those things Wanda and I didn’t. Other kids make fun at school, call us names but we never cared. We had each other and our family was together, we were poor but we were happy while being poor. They did all they could to make sure we were happy and we had nights for just family time, we play games, read books, listen to the radio or TV. I miss them.” He ended. 

Hearing that Norah gave a sad smile and wished that she could bring his parents back, it sounded as if they were great people who had done whatever they had to to make sure that Wanda and Pietro had what they needed. “They sound wonderful.” Norah said to him. 

“Yes they were.” Pietro said to her and then shook his head and cleared his throat from the sad and depressing thoughts that were trying to make their way into his mind. “Tell me of favorite trip of yours that you took.” Pietro said to her as he looked up into her dark eyes. 

At that Norah had to think for a moment and of course Pietro not being able to help himself had to take the opportunity to lightly run his fingertips up and down Norah’s spine, he couldn’t help but tease her and try and distract her while she was thinking. In fact, Pietro would much rather forget this whole ask one and another questions to get to know one and another business and instead just lay out on the couch and make out like the young twenty-some year olds they were but Norah wanted to do this so he was going along with it for her benefit. 

“It was when I had been living in Sweden,” Norah began to say as Pietro’s hand slowly slipped underneath the band of her shirt and began tracing designs along her back which made her give a small sigh but she really wasn’t all that annoyed. “My roommate of the time and I…” she stopped a moment and breathed in sharply as Pietro began to kiss along her neck once again. “We…uh,” Norah attempted to say but had lost her train of thought and forgot what she had been explaining to Pietro.

Pietro sat up a bit more and leaned towards Norah and began to place soft kisses along her neck at a slow pace, one of his hands resting on the opposite side of her neck and gently caressing her skin with the pad of his thumb as he slowly kissed higher and higher on her neck. Breaking away from the kisses he was bestowing upon her neck Pietro ran his nose along the column of her neck, deeply inhaling her scent which seemed to be a mix of earthy smells, something possibly tropical and woman and god did Pietro love it. 

“Don’t stop because of me moj mali bik,” Pietro said in a distracted tone as he leaned down a bit and placed a feather light kiss on Norah’s bottom lip and looked at her with his piercing blue colored eyes, amusement showing in them. “Continue, please.” He said to her, a smirk on his lips. 

“Oh shut up and kiss me.” Norah growled at Pietro as she shifted her legs around until she was straddling Pietro’s waist rather than sitting on his lap like she had been previously and cupped Pietro’s face and pulled him down towards hers for a kiss.

Playing twenty questions could wait, she and Pietro had all the time in the world to get to know one and another and quite honestly Norah would much rather be making out with Pietro on the couch in the living room rather than asking questions. That’s what dating was all about anyways – getting to know one and another. 

Pietro chuckled into the kiss, “So…” he pressed another kiss to her lips and playfully bit at her bottom lip pulling it out a bit before releasing it. “Demanding.” He said and moved his lips from her rather red and plump ones to just under her chin.

As Pietro made his way along her jaw line, Norah wrapped one arm across Pietro’s back and moved the other until it was between them and slowly slipped it underneath the front of his shirt and lightly traced her nails over his lower stomach and gave a smirk when she felt the muscles jump underneath her touch – payback for earlier. Closing her eyes at the feeling of Pietro’s lips moving along her jaw and closer to her ear, Norah let out a shuddering breath and realized that it truly has been a good long time since she has had a boyfriend or even had a guy to do things like this with, either that or Pietro was very, very skilled that he was able to have her reacting so easily to just kisses and simple touches. Giving a small moan, Norah arched her head back to give Pietro more access and then she moved her hand that was under his shirt and slowly inched her hand further up his torso, playing with the small amount of hair that was near his belly button and then feeling his abs which were not obvious six packs or anything like that but were definitely toned and she was more than happy to run her fingers along them and feel the muscles and warm skin that laid there. 

Grasping onto the hair that was at the back of Pietro’s head and pulling his lips away from her neck, Norah removed the hand that had snaked itself underneath his shirt and slowly glided it up his shirt until she settled it against his shoulder to use to steady herself and then surged forward and pressed her lips against Pietro’s. Norah simply couldn’t get enough of Pietro……or his lips, she loved being able to taste his lips, of being able to feel his lips pressed tightly against hers and she loved being able to kiss him and feel him gasp when she would kiss him or move her body in a certain way. She loved it all. Deepening the kiss that she was getting lost in, Norah couldn’t help but use both of her hands to grasp onto Pietro’s silver/blonde colored hair and pull him closer to her and press her chest as tightly against his as humanly possible and still making it possible for the two of them to breathe easily. Meanwhile one of Pietro’s arms were wrapped around Norah’s waist with his hand pressed at the small of her back keeping her pressed close to him and the other was in her curly hair, making sure that their lips stayed sealed to one and another as they shared a few heated and passionate kisses.

“Ugh!” A voice interrupted the two from their making out session. “You guys, there’s innocent eyes watching. Keep it PG will you.” 

Looking behind her from where she was straddling Pietro, Norah grinned when she saw Clint standing there beside Natasha who was smirking at her and with Steve who was looking away from where Norah and Pietro were with a red color on his cheeks. “Clint!” she said excitedly, making her way clumsily off of Pietro and onto her own feet so she could go to Clint.

“I think you two just scarred Steve for life.” Clint joked as Norah made her way over to him and threw her arms around his shoulders in a hug which he quickly returned. “It’s good to see you kid, sorry I couldn’t stay until you woke up.” He said with an apologetic smile. 

Norah gave a shrug of her shoulders, she understood why Clint couldn’t stay for the eleven days it took for her to wake up – he had his two kids and very pregnant wife to worry about. He did manage to call her once he got news of her waking up though and had talked to her for a while after that which had led to Laura and Clint’s daughter wanting to talk to her and wishing her a speedy recovery which was really unexpected but nice, especially from Clint’s daughter who was completely adorable. 

“It’s fine,” Norah said as she released him from her hug and waved his apology off. “I mean if I could have, I would have skipped over that whole unconscious thing but apparently not in the cards.” She joked to him.

Clint smiled down at her, “Good to see that you still have your sense of humor.” He said and then looked over at Pietro and nodded at him. “Speedy, you been taking care of her and making sure she hasn’t been making too much trouble for the medical staff.” 

At that Pietro stood up and then suddenly appeared next to Norah, “I try but she is stubborn like bull, not easy task.” He said to her.

“Yeah, I’ve heard that before.” Clint said and then looked at Norah with amusement. “In fact I think I heard something about a certain someone escaping from the Medical Wing earlier today. Is that right?” he asked as he raised a brow at Norah.

In response to that Norah gave a sheepish smile and gave a shrug, “Well, you know I can’t help myself sometimes and well, I was bored and had nothing to do so I figured I would go on a small adventure.” She told him simply and then gave a pointed look over to Steve who still had a bit of a blush on his face at catching Norah and Pietro making out on the couch in the rather large living room. “Some people just overreacted a tad bit.”

Norah understood everyone being protective of her and feeling like they had to do some things for her and honestly, she totally was loving it for the first day but after the second and third day went by and they were still trying to wait on her hand and food – something she definitely didn’t let happen all that often – well, it was starting to get on her nerves and making her want to inflict violence upon the whole bunch of them. Thor she couldn’t really hurt he was a Norse god and all, Wanda had her cool voodoo magic red energy things so there was no point in Norah attempting to hurt her, Natasha was an assassin enough said right there, but Tony and Pietro were possible one’s she could have hurt if she got frustrated enough. Hopefully now that she was officially out of the Medical Wing everyone would lay off a bit and stop treating her like she was made of glass.

“So, Steve,” Norah said from her seat beside Pietro on the couch that they had previously been making out on; she, Pietro, Steve, Clint and Natasha were all sitting around in the living room talking and chatting a bit until someone gave in and decided to start making dinner for everyone that lived in the tower. “How was the mission with Sam? Was Bucky there?” she asked curiously, looking at him and hoping against hope that he had managed to at least talk to Bucky if nothing else.

At that Steve gave a heavy sigh and ran his hands through his blonde hair that was still styled very 1940’s, “Bucky….he was there, me and Sam scouted out the area first and the few places that our contact said that they had seen Bucky. On the fourth day of being there I finally managed to see him and I followed him, but I guess he saw me and didn’t want to talk or isn’t all there yet or just is afraid or something but before I even had a chance to say anything to him he ran off into one of the alleys.” He said and paused a moment, a downcast expression spreading across his face making him look a lot older than he was supposed to physically be. “Sam and I of course ran down the alley to chase after him and to try and talk to him, to tell him that we just wanted to help and wanted to bring him back with us to people who wanted to help him but he was gone. No trace, no sign, nothing to hint where he may have gone.”

“Oh, Steve.” Norah said to her friend sympathetically, her gaze softening. “I’m sorry. I know how hard you’ve been trying to find him.”

“We looked in the surrounding areas and some of the homeless shelters asking about him and even soup kitchens but…well, we didn’t get anything that was really worth looking into.” Steve said and clenched his fist angrily, all he wanted to do was find his best friend and help him, to show him that no matter what he did and what was done to him that he still accepted him and that there are still good and accepting people in the world. 

Norah leaned further into Pietro and took the last sip of her mostly cold tea, “Well, like I’ve said before.” She said to him. “If you want my help in finding him I am more than willing to help you Steve.” She said to him. “Once Cho okay’s me of course.” She added once she saw the look he, Natasha, Clint and Pietro had sent her when she offered to help him. 

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Steve said noncommittal. 

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~ Norah’s Room: Norah & Wanda ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

After everyone had dinner in the kitchen, Thor loudly congratulating Norah on being released from her healing quarters, both Norah and Wanda had made their way up to Norah’s bedroom that was definitely not located in the Medical Wing any longer so that they could get their girls night started. Pietro attempted to follow them but Wanda had noticed – a twin thing she said – and had used her powers against him and blocked him from following after them and told him that this was time for her and Norah to bond and have a girls night which meant no males allowed and to stay away unless he wanted to face an irate girlfriend and twin. Once Pietro looked between the faces of both Norah and Wanda he had sighed in resignation and turned back around and headed downstairs to hang out with the others since it was obvious Norah and Wanda weren’t about to let him join in on their night. 

At the moment Norah and Wanda were laying on their stomachs, their heads at the foot of the bed with a spread of junk food in front of them and watching Doctor Who on her big screen TV that was mounted across from her bed. Norah figured that being the great friend that she was that she would introduce Wanda to British TV shows and hopefully have her become nearly as obsessed with them as she was – eventually she’d move on to Sherlock and Torchwood. 

“But, why is he using police box?” Wanda asked curiously as she grabbed a handful of M&M’s and ate a few at a time. “I do not understand.” 

Norah gave a shrug of the shoulders, “I don’t think anyone knows why, and if they do and there is an episode explaining why the police Box is the TARDIS I haven’t seen it.” She told her while eating a twizzler. 

So far, she and Wanda have watched about two episodes of Doctor Who and Wanda was hooked from the start. Norah started her off with the David Tennant doctor since he was more popular than the doctor before him though Norah was rather fond of the Matt Smith doctor as well, especially the Van Gogh episode. 

“So did you and my brother have fun, once you were done getting checked out by Cho?” Wanda asked with a smirk on her face, amused at how heated and physical Norah and Pietro’s relationship was already, she had heard that they were caught making out in the living room as well. 

When Wanda said that Norah turned and looked at her friend with a sideways glance, “Are we really talking about your brother? About me and your brother?” she questioned, a brown raised at Wanda curiously.

“It is not like I want exact details,” Wanda defended and pulled a disgusted face at the thought of Norah telling her every single detail of her and Pietro’s relationship and what else they may be doing in the future. “But is girl’s night not about talking about boys? Clothes? And…things like that. I do not know what we are supposed to do other than watch movies and eat junk food, I’ve never had chance to do this.” She said to her honestly, a bit embarrassed at the sort of experiences she never had the chance to do. 

What Norah would rather not do is talk about Pietro with his sister, it was weird and made her feel all awkward and Norah felt as if she would get to talking and then end up talking about something that involves Pietro that Wanda would have rather not ever known about….like the feeling of his abs or of how he felt under her when he got excited. Things like that. 

“Well considering that I’m dating your brother I think it would be weird for me to talk about him, at least certain stuff. Besides, all we did was make out a bit and hang out and talk, doing the whole getting to know one and another better thing.” Norah said to Wanda with a half shrug as she took a sip of her water. “He did end up distracting me from that by kissing me. The fiend.” She said, a fond smile on her face as she said that and thought about Pietro. 

Wanda shook her head, “Males.” She said, a light tone in her voice. “So, if we are not talking about boys, what else do we talk about?” she asked her. 

Norah looked at Wanda a bit sadly, feeling bad that she’s never really had a chance to have a girls night before and wondered what kind of friends she had growing up if she didn’t have girls night. She’s here to rectify that though. “Well I like clothes but I don’t think spending the whole night talking about them is all that exciting, music is something I like but I think we need to listen to music together and introduce you to some music that I have on my iTunes before we talk music. But we can talk about anything really; life, friends, family, venting about anything and everything. You know, stuff.” She said to her. 

“You know I have never had many friends,” Wanda said off hand to Norah. “And not many close friends, it has always just Pietro and I. He is not best at being friends with girls, he does not say right thing all of time.” She said with a wry smile on her face.

“Just like most men.” Norah added making the two give a giggle at that. “Well even though we were kinda fighting on opposite sides, I’m glad we met. And you have Natasha, Vision, Thor and all of the others and I’d love to introduce you to some of my friends from my Mutant school. I can’t be your only close friend.” She said and knocked her shoulder against Wanda’s who smiled at her.

“I would very much like that.” Wanda said to her as she popped a circular candy into her mouth and then immediately scrunched up her face at the taste. “What is this? It is so sour!” 

Norah laughed, “War Head, one of the best sour candies ever made.” She replied.

For a few hours after that they watched more episodes of Doctor Who, Wanda asking questions and commenting on the parts she liked and Norah responding in kind and talking about the parts she liked and the characters that she thought were terrifying or really well written in the show. They talked about anything and everything that came to mind, about Wanda’s life living in Sokovia before and after her parents had died, they talked about Norah living at the Mansion and going to school with other Mutants and how she finally felt accepted and well, everything really. 

“Your family is arriving soon, aren’t they?” Wanda asked Norah, it was about three a.m. at the moment and they were still watching episodes of Doctor Who and have been for at least four or five hours now. 

Norah looked down at her plate of junk food somberly for a moment and gave a small nod of affirmation at what Wanda asked, “Yeah, should be here mid-afternoon to early evening.” She said with a tone of trepidation, she still had mixed feelings about seeing her family again….mainly her birth father. 

Wanda looked over at Norah curiously, when she had messed with Norah’s mind back at the shipyard she ended up finding things out about her that Norah probably had not told any other living soul before. The bad things that had happened to her, the negative things that she had thought about herself and her body when she was a teenager, about why she didn’t date much when she was a teenager and why she had only ended up dating one boy while going to school at Xavier’s and she knew every single detail of what had happened to Norah in St. Louis……that experience she didn’t wish upon anyone, least of all Norah who had such an intense, protective, loyal personality that seemed to draw people in without even realizing it. Wanda had found out about Norah’s family, about the sort of father she had had and had found out that Norah’s father and Wanda’s father were vastly different people and that Norah had grown up fifteen years with a father who didn’t really care about her or her sister. She also knew about the drinking and the drugs that Norah’s father had done and dealt in – some people didn’t deserve to be parents. 

“You do not wish for them to come?” Wanda questioned curiously, wanting to know what Norah thought about this.

At that Norah rolled over and flopped onto her back and looked up at the curtains that were above her and that covered her canopy bed. “I do…for the most part. I mainly want to see my sister again, I want to see her and meet her family. I want to tell her how much I missed her, how much I missed talking to her about whatever came to mind like music and books, movies, actors we found attractive, how annoying our mother was at times, places we wanted to visit and everything and anything in-between.” She said with a soft smile on her face, remembering the sort of sisterly bond she and her sister used to have. “My ma, well I’m not sure about her. I want to see her and tell her how much she hurt me, how much I missed her and hated her for what she said and for what she thought of me being a Mutant. I miss my mother, she was always my biggest supporter and sure we would argue but that’s with any parent that has a teenager. They argue once in a while. But I just didn’t want to see my birth father, I have a father already. Tony, Tony is my father and I really don’t want to see Tom whatsoever. He’s done nothing for me in my life and was barely there for the last few years before I ran away so I really wished he wasn’t coming here to see me, I doubt if he even wants to see me.” 

“I’m sorry.” Wanda said to her as she sat up into a cross legged position and soothingly ran her hand over Norah’s forehead and moved some stray hairs out of her way. “What you need to concentrate on is seeing your sister and her family, they are the ones you wish to see most, yes?” she questioned to which Norah nodded at. “Then concentrate on seeing them again, see your mother and talk with her. I am not saying to forgive for what she said to you when you were fifteen; she hurt you and said hurtful things. You should not have to accept an apology but you can listen to her, see if she change. Yes?” she said with an encouraging nod of the head. “As for your birth father, I do not think you should talk to him if you do not want to. He has done nothing for you to owe it to him, if you want to stay away and not talk that is your right but it may be good to confront him. To come to terms so to say and let him know what you truly think and to tell him that you do not wish to have contact if that is what you want.” Wanda said.

Hearing that made Norah shake her head, “You sound like Pietro. He said the same thing to me basically.” She told her.

“Don’t you say that!” Wanda said while feigning a gasp and then ending up laughing. 

The two settled down after that and barely watched fifteen to twenty minutes into another episode before they both ended up falling asleep next to one and another on Norah’s bed – a sign of a successful girls night.


	26. Chapter 26

When Norah had finally woke up from her a coma almost a week or so ago there were no words that Pepper could possibly think of that would describe how relieved and thankful she was that Norah was alive and that she was able to be up and walking with only a bit of pain from the wounds she had received in Sokovia – being shot five times was not something a person just walks off. Pepper cared and loved Norah just as much as Tony loved her, but while the relationship that Tony had with Norah was a father/daughter one the one that she and Pepper had was more so along the lines of the protective older sister/younger annoying sister sort of relationship. Pepper was a career woman, she would be the first to admit that and Tony….well Tony never really wanted kids, said he didn’t want to end up like his father but then Norah came into their lives and wedged herself into both of their hearts. Both Tony and Pepper still didn’t want any kids, personally Norah with her antics, her sarcasm and acting way too much like Tony and using her powers to pop in and out whenever she pleases, well, she was more than enough for them let alone adding a small child into the family dynamic. 

The moment Norah had woke up from her a coma Pepper wanted to barge right up to her, slap her upside the head for her stupidity and tell her exactly what she thought about everything that Norah had done but instead of doing that Pepper had ended up breaking down and telling Norah how much she loved her and how thankful she was that she was alive. So Pepper decided the best plan of action would be to wait, to wait and let Norah heal up a bit, to give her and Pietro time with one and another (she so shipped those two even if Tony didn’t) and she gave her time to just rest up and recover from the ordeal that she had been through. 

But now it was time for the two girls to have a one on one talk with no interruptions by any outside forces – she’d have Friday make sure that happens – there was a lot of anger and frustration that Pepper felt because of what Norah did and she knew that Norah knew that she would have absolutely refused to let the blonde haired Mutant join Tony and the others in taking out Hydra bases and definitely would not have let her help them take Ultron out but still, even knowing that Norah still went along and helped and got herself severely injured in the process. All right so Pepper was a tad bit overprotective of Norah, she was probably worse than Steve at times but Pepper couldn’t help it, she wanted to protect Norah and make sure she lived the life she deserved and be a normal twenty something year old but she forgets at times that Norah first and foremost was a Mutant, a powerful Mutant and could protect herself the majority of the time. Pepper knew that Norah was strong even without her Mutant powers, she was stubborn, determined, and fierce and would do anything to protect her friends but Pepper couldn’t help but want to keep her safe and coddled, away from the danger that the Avengers tend to get themselves into. 

“Friday?” Pepper questioned out to the hallway she was walking down, heading towards the elevator that was closest to her office in the tower.

Within but a few moments the A.I. responded, “Yes Ms. Potts, how can I be of help?” the Irish accented voice of Friday said throughout the hallway Pepper was walking down at the moment. 

Pepper brushed some of her strawberry blonde hair behind her ear, “Can you tell me where Norah is, please?” she questioned politely, Friday may be Artificial Intelligence but Tony did make sure that most of his A.I.’s had feelings and personalities, said that it made them interesting and more fun to talk to when he was working alone in his lab at times.

“Norah is in the library with Pietro.” Friday replied simply to Pepper’s question. “Will that be all Ms. Potts or is there anything else that I can do for you?” she questioned.

At that Pepper shook her head, “No Friday, that will be all. Thank you.” Pepper said as she reached the elevator and pressed the correct button that would take her to the level that the library was on – a library which Tony had built for both Pepper and Norah who both shared a love for books of almost any kind. 

The A.I. responded, “It is my pleasure Ms. Potts.” It replied before it was quiet within the elevator once again.

The library was located about two levels below where a few of the bedrooms for the residents of the tower were; the library itself was a very humble room considering that it was Tony who had created and designed it with input from both Norah and Pepper. It wasn’t incredibly large but it was a decent sized library, in the middle of the room was a rather large wooden table that could seat six or more people on both sides of it comfortably with papers and books able to be spread out across the table as well, there were some stained glass antique looking low hanging ceiling lights that dangled above the wooden table, there were very simple but elegant looking bookshelves that lined three of the four walls of the room while the other one had floor to ceiling windows that looked out into the city and had thick deep blue curtains pulled back. There were a few couches and chairs spread throughout the room for people to settle onto to read whatever books may strike their fancy, towards one end of the room was a spiral staircase that led to a second level that wasn’t even half the size of the room itself and was more so like a nook that also had a few book cases and two small couches to sit on and a few floor lamps. There had been many times over the last three years that Norah had holed herself up in this library and pulled an all nighter of studying until god knows when – sleep was not something a college student got all that often. 

Stepping off of the elevator, Pepper made her way down the hallway and passed a few rooms – a lounge, a bathroom and even a game room (there were at least three game rooms within Stark Tower) – before she finally reached the massive wooden doors of the library. Stopping in front of the wooden doors Pepper hesitated for a few moments and wondered if she should knock, should she just walk in or how exactly she should proceed at the moment. The tower was her home, she was comfortable walking in almost every room but she had heard from both Clint and Natasha that Norah and Pietro had been caught making out on the couch in the living room and had also been caught doing so in one of the elevators as well, Pepper had a feeling that neither Pietro or Norah were going to be afraid to show forms of public display of affection throughout the tower and in front of people and she knew without a doubt that the two twenty-something year olds would probably end up being caught making out in the tower more times than not……hopefully that was all they would end up being caught doing.

Slowly opening the door and looking around the room Pepper gave a soft smile when she saw that both Pietro and Norah were sitting together on one of the homey looking brown couches with a laptop sitting in front of them on the coffee table and a pair of earbuds being shared between the two. It was a sweet sight and Pepper wished she had brought her phone with her so that she could capture the moment, seeing Norah so happy and so obviously smitten with Pietro and Pietro in turn smitten and completely captivated by Norah was a sight to see. It made Pepper think that maybe after everything that Norah has been through, all of the bad things and all of the hate she had gotten and her people – Mutants – had gotten was something she had to experience to get to this point in her life. To get to Pietro. 

Rather than interrupting the couple who were so engrossed in what they were doing that they didn’t notice Pepper standing there near the doorway of the library, Pepper instead decided to just watch them for a while and listen to the two of them interact with one and another. 

“These are….earphones?” Pietro questioned as he placed the small thing into one of his ears. “It is so small.” He said as he gave a sideways glance to Norah, a questioning look on his face.

At that Norah gave a small laugh, she knew that in Sokovia that he and Wanda didn’t get much interaction with too advanced technology or any modern pop culture or things like that and showing him these things were beyond hilarious. “There earbuds actually, but same concept nonetheless.” She said to him as she put the other earbud into her ear and then plugged the cord into her laptop and her fingers moved rapidly over the keyboard and then scrolled through her music library before clicking on a song. “This is one of my favorite bands, it’s a rock band and well, with you not really knowing what kind of music you like exactly and mostly only hearing older music I figured I’d just introduce you to music I like and then we can go from there and find out what you like and don’t like. If you don’t like something don’t be afraid to hurt my feelings and tell me it’s shit or something like that, I don’t want you to suffer through something you hate.” She told him as she gave him a pointed look, she knew him decently well at this point that she knew he would do something like that. 

Pietro smile and leaned over and kissed her temple, “I do not think anything you listen to will be, as you say, shit.” He said in amusement. “Now tell me, what is name of this favorite band of yours?” he asked her, a curious look glinting in his blue colored eyes. 

“Avenged Sevenfold. They are completely amazing and are beyond talented when it comes to music, you can feel their emotions through their music and in concert…” Norah said and paused a moment to shake her head and smile. “Well, they are unbelievable in concert, you can see how much they love what they are doing and how hard they work to make music for people to enjoy.” 

While Norah had been saying this Pietro looked down at her with a soft smile on his face at how animated and passionate his girlfriend got when she was talking about something she truly loved and enjoyed and from what it sounded like, Norah was very passionate about music. 

“Here, listen. You’ll understand what I mean when you hear a few of their songs.” Norah said to him as she clicked on one of her favorite songs by them, Beast and the Harlot. 

Watching Pietro’s reaction to the music made Norah grin widely, his eyes widened almost comically at the loud sound of the guitars, the drums and the sound of the lead singers voice mixed with the loud instruments of the song. The lead singer of the band had a raspy voice at times, could have a very soft sounding voice and then in other songs it was loud and angry sounding and could do the metal scream/singing thing that not everyone had the talent to do so.

Music has always been a passion of Norah’s other than writing and languages, hell she played the violin after all and though she wasn’t the best at it and probably wouldn’t be playing any sold out shows or any shows that weren’t in front of her friends and family members she did love to do it. She liked singing too and liked doing Karaoke at the bars once in a while, she usually dragged Steve and Tasha with her and whatever friends that were available or in town at the time which usually didn’t happen all that often sadly. Maybe Wanda and Pietro would want to go with and do Karaoke or at least watch Norah and the others do it and embarrass themselves the more they drank while doing karaoke. 

“This…this is favorite band of yours?” Pietro asked as the song ended and another song by the band came through the earbuds for him to listen to.   
Norah nodded, her hair falling into her face to which she frowned at and tucked behind her ear for umpteenth time. “Yup. I’ve loved them for a good ten years at least.” She said to him and then looked at him expectantly waiting to hear what he thought of one of her favorite bands. 

Giving Norah a soft look Pietro reached down and laced their fingers together before he pressed the back of Norah’s hand against his cheek and then looked into her dark colored eyes, “I like these people, this Avenged Sevenfold of yours. Do you have more? Other’s like theirs?” he asked her, an excited and happy look in his blue colored eyes as he spoke to her. 

Just as Norah was about to respond to Pietro’s enthusiastic question Pepper decided to make her presence known to the two young adults, she wanted them to spend time together and everything but right now, she needed to have that talk with Norah. A talk that she has been putting off for far too long, it couldn’t wait any longer or else Norah’s family would be here by then and it would just make things awkward if she did so when Norah’s mother, sister, brother in law, father and niece were around. She didn’t want to step on any toes. 

“Norah? Pietro?” Pepper said as she walked further into the room and smiled warmly at the two who gave small smiles in return. 

“Hello Pepper.” Pietro said in his accented voice. “How are you?” he questioned friendly. 

Pepper smiled at him, he may have willingly let himself be experimented on and then joined forced with Ultron for a while there was no doubt that he had been raised right by his parents before they had passed away. “I’m good Pietro, how are you?” she questioned.

“I am doing very well,” he replied to her and then took the one earbud out of his ear and then gestured to the laptop that was in front of him. “Norah is introducing me to music of this country, to rock music.” He said to her, a half smile forming on his face as he was talking. 

At that Pepper smiled a bit, “And what’s the verdict?” she questioned.

“I like this music of hers, I want to hear more.” Pietro told her.

Norah smiled at him, “Just wait until we get to Apocalyptica.” She said with a smirk and then looked over at Pepper with a curious look on her face. “So, what’s up? Did you need something or did you just miss my bodacious self?” she joked.

Not able to help herself Pepper gave a snort of amusement at Norah’s description of herself, “You sound too much like Tony at times Norah.” She said to her with a slight shake of her head before she put on her serious face and looked at Norah. “I want to talk to you Norah.” She told her.

Hearing that Norah furrowed her brow and looked at Pepper who had a serious look on her face, a look that made Norah wonder what sort of things she needed to talk to her about. It was the sort of look that Pepper had on her face after Tony had nearly died in the Middle-East and after the Loki fiasco, a look that Norah wasn’t all that fond of having directed at her and she had a feeling that Pepper was not going to talk to her but moreso lecture her.  
“Right now?” Norah asked quietly as she glanced quickly over at Pietro who was looking between the two females, and then looked back at Pepper who was giving her a pointed look at the moment. 

“Yes, right now.” Pepper said to her. “I need to talk to you Norah.” She told her sternly, making it clear that refusing was not an option at the moment. 

“But-“ Norah began but stopped when Pietro gently put his larger hand on her forearm and squeezed gently and pulled her face to look towards him. 

Pietro smiled down at her, “We will have time later, you will show me more music like this Avenged Sevenfold of yours. You need to talk with your friend, it is all right. I will meet you later.” He said to her before he pressed a quick kiss to her lips and sped out of the library before either Pepper or Norah were really able to comprehend that he had left. 

Norah sighed sadly at the absence of Pietro and then looked over at Pepper with resignation, she knew exactly what this supposed ‘talk’ was going to be about and quite simply Norah was dreading what was to come. The moment she agreed to go to Sokovia with Tony and the others to help them take down the Hydra base that housed Loki’s scepter she knew that there would be hell to pay for that choice, she knew…absolutely knew that Pepper would freak out, that she would yell and tell them what exactly she thought about Norah helping Tony and the others with their missions which Pepper had explicitly told them to not have Norah join in on. But, Norah wasn’t exactly the type who listened all that well especially when it came to helping her friends or not. Yep, Norah really, really, really did not want to have this conversation with Pepper and end up arguing with her, not exactly on her list of things to do this week. 

Pepper makes her way over to the couch that Norah was sitting cross-legged on and gently sat down next to Norah and she could only imagine the image they made at the moment – Norah in a pair of yoga pants, a tank top and an overly large cardigan and Pepper still in her business outfit with high heels on and everything. It was quite comical to picture. 

“I’ve been wanting to talk to you since you woke up.” Pepper admitted to Norah, looking into the girls dark brown eyes and then looking out the windows of the library and watching as the people down on the streets scurried along to do whatever it is that they had to do. “But I thought that I would give you some time to heal and recover from everything.” She said and paused a moment as she attempted put what she wanted to say in order and hoped to god that Norah wouldn’t get angry and accidentally make anything explode – she may have a hold on her power but that doesn’t mean that there weren’t accidents that still happened once in a while. “I already yelled at Tony and told him how stupid and selfish he was for letting you go with him and the others and for letting you help them with the Ultron fiasco he created.”

At that Norah narrowed her eyes at Pepper and gave her an unamused look, “It wasn’t Tony’s fault-“ she started to say and then stopped herself and made an odd face. “Okay, correction. It’s not completely Tony’s fault. He asked me to go with and I agreed and then when the Ultron thing happened I offered my help then too. I could have said no to Tony, trust me I really enjoy saying no to him but instead, instead I decided to help the people who are my friends and people who I see as family defeat a murder crazy robot that wanted to annihilate the human race.”

Pepper pursed her lips at that, “He had no right asking that from you, he and the others could have handled it fine without you. Tony, Steve, Natasha, Clint, Bruce and Thor all could have handled it perfectly fine without you being there.” She said to her and gently laid her hands in her lap. “You’ve barely had a chance to experience life Norah, you’re twenty-two years old and you’ve been through so much and suffered something that was horrific when you were just a teenager, and I may not know what it was that happened to you but I can tell it was something bad Norah. You were thrust into a hard life the moment you found out you were a Mutant, you were hated because of what you were and you had to endure so many people threatening your kind and hating your kid simply because they didn’t understand.” She said and took a deep breath for a moment. “After all of that, after experiencing all of that and coming out on top you deserve to have a normal life or as normal as you can have. You don’t deserve to have Tony and the others ask you to help them with their Avenger business, you don’t need to help them or go with them to foreign countries to take out a crazy robot that Tony created. You deserve….normalcy.” 

Norah looked at Pepper for a few moments and saw how intensely she believed what she was saying and then looked away from Pepper and at the bookshelves that lined the walls and thought for a moment, there were a lot of things that she wanted to respond with but she would much rather not get into an argument with Pepper.   
She understood that Pepper wanted the best for her and wanted her to have a normal life after the life she lived; finding out she was a Mutant at 7 years old or so, gaining another power at fifteen, running away from home, getting…..assaulted horrifically in St. Louis, joining Xavier’s school and then graduating early and making a life for herself in Sweden where she then had to run from because someone found out about her being a Mutant and was not so friendly to that fact and then being found in Romania by Fury and Clint. It’s been a hell of a life for her and quite honestly it wasn’t the most normal of lives to live but Norah liked it, it may not be what she had planned on or expected but it was her life and she was happy with it and that was what counted most. Pepper wanted Norah to have a normal life but the moment she found out that she was a Mutant normal went out the window never to be seen again. Being a Mutant made her stronger, she had to see things and experience hate and bigotry from people simply because she was born a bit different, she had to hear hate filled words directed at herself and her friends from school and experience the looks people would give her and every other Mutant the moment they found out what they were. 

No, Norah did not have an especially nice or easy life, it wasn’t horrible and it wasn’t exactly difficult but it definitely wasn’t easy. This life though, this is her life and she’s okay with how she’s living it and is happy with the people that she has met and the people that she was surrounded by. But Norah did not need to be protected and coddled like Pepper seemed to do a lot of the time; she understood her protectiveness to an extent but sometimes it gets to be a bit much. She is a powerful Mutant, she has unbelievable abilities and has learned how to fight, how to protect herself and how to control her powers and is an asset when it comes to the Avengers if it suits her to do so. 

“Pepper,” Norah started as she looked into the concerned gaze of one of the people she cared deeply for. “I love you, you’re like another sister to me and I appreciate you looking out for me and willing to yell at Tony for putting me in danger but as much as you hate to think it, I am an adult who can make her own choices and I chose to help Tony and the others. I chose to help them take Ultron down and I chose to save Pietro, Clint and that kid in Sokovia from being shot and ended up being shot five times and nearly dying. It wouldn’t be my first choice of things to do given the choice but I chose to do them because they were needed, no one expected anything out of me simply because I am a Mutant with useful powers but I decided to help because I could and because of my powers. I-“

Before Norah was able to finish what she was saying Pepper interrupted her, “No Norah, I don’t care if you willingly went with or not Tony should never had asked you to help, he should never had allowed you to go with and he should have made sure that you wouldn’t have a way to go with if you were being stubborn. You shouldn’t have to be in that sort of danger, you’re a kid, you need-“

“I’m not a kid!” Norah yelled as she looked towards the door of the room where she could have sworn she saw a flash of black hair but shrugged it off, she didn’t really care if anyone could hear her and Pepper’s conversation. “I’m not a damn kid Pepper, I’m not and I haven’t truly been a kid since I was fifteen years old. I’ll be twenty-three years old in six months Pepper, I’m an adult as far as modern society is concerned.” She said and gave a frustrated sound at how Pepper was being. “I thought Steve was bad but geeze Pepper, you are really starting to top him at the moment.” She told her and slowly inhaled and exhaled a few times to control herself and to keep her power under control. “I’m an adult Pepper, I’ve been an adult for a while now and I don’t need to experience things other ‘kids’ my age do, I don’t need to be a kid anymore. I’ve seen too much and been through too much to do that anymore.”

“And that’s why you need to be a kid Norah, that’s why Tony shouldn’t have asked you to go with him and the others. You never should have been put into that situation.” Pepper argued with her. “When I got that phone call from Tony telling me about what he did and about what happened to you…..I was terrified. I was absolutely terrified Norah,” she admitted to her as she ran her hands through her hair. “I thought we were going to lose you, I thought that you would die before I had the time to fly back into New York. I’ve never lost someone close to me before; I’ve never seen anyone that I cared for in a hospital bed like you were. I never want to experience something like that ever again Norah, I can’t see you like that again. Laid out in the hospital, numerous bandages and blood covering your body. It was like something out of a horror movie.” She said as she shook her head to dislodge the images from her mind. 

Yep, this conversation wasn’t exactly going how Norah had hoped it would. 

Rubbing at the back of her neck Norah looked at Pepper once again, “Pepper, I’m going to put this as bluntly as I can. I’m a Mutant.” She told her and paused for a moment. “I’m a Mutant who can Blink herself from one place to another and who can also blow things up so to say. Nothing about me is normal no matter how you try and look at it. I’m a Mutant runaway who was taken in by Tony Stark who is Iron Man, I’m good friends with Captain America, a Norse god and the Hulk, and I was trained by two skilled assassins and on top of that I’m now friends with a girl who has some magic voodoo thing going on and am dating a guy who can move faster than the blink of an eye. Nothing about my life is normal and I don’t want it to be.” 

“I will agree to that Norah. I want you to have a normal life but I suppose being a Mutant doesn’t make that all that possible.” Pepper conceded. “But, Tony shouldn’t have asked you to go with, you shouldn’t have been made to be in that sort of situation and you definitely shouldn’t have had to be shot.” 

Hearing that caused Norah to frown, a crease forming between her eyes the deeper she frowned. “Yes he should have.” Norah stated quietly, knowing that Pepper was not going to take that simple statement all that well especially if the dark look she sent her was anything to go by. “Tony should have called me and asked me and I’m glad that he did, I’m glad he called me and asked me to help him and the others take down the Hydra base in Sokovia, I’m glad that I offered to help him take Ultron down and that I was able to help and protect my friends. I am glad, ecstatic even, that I was able to save Clint and Pietro from being shot at even if the end result was me being shot and being forced into a medically induced a coma for almost two weeks. And I’m damn sure that Laura and Wanda are glad that I did so too.” She said to her.

Pepper looked at Norah and shook her head, not able to believe that she was hearing what was coming out of Norah’s mouth at the moment. Norah was….happy, that she had been shot and been in a coma, she was glad that she was there and that she had been put in a dangerous situation that could have ended with her death, something that had almost happened. All Pepper wanted was for Norah to be safe and to not go out on missions with the Avengers ever again, if not for Norah’s own safety than for Pepper’s peace of mind but she had a feeling that things were not going to be going that way. 

“You don’t even want to be an Avenger, you-“ Pepper began to say but Norah interrupted before she was able to continue on her tirade. 

“Correction,” Norah said simply as she stood up from the couch and leaned up against the wooden table that was in the middle of the room and crossed her arms as she narrowed her eyes at Pepper, a woman who she loved like a sister most days but was beginning to piss her off at the precise moment. “Fury didn’t want me to join the team, not the other way around and at the time I wasn’t really feeling being on a superhero team, if I wanted that I would have stayed at Xavier’s and became an X-Men like Xavier had asked me to do but it just wasn’t my kind of thing. I’m too much of a free spirit, stubborn, hard-headed and like to do my own thing to be able to really work on a team like that permanently.” She told her as she clenched her fists in front of her and did her best to calm her breathing down. “And you’re right for the most part, I don’t really want to be an Avenger. I want to be able to be home when I want to be, I want to be able to lounge around in the afternoon in my yoga pants and a band shirt and read or do some writing, I want to be able to use my degree that Tony paid a good amount of money for, I want to be able to go out when I want to without being called away to stop whatever bad things are going on at the moment be them aliens or a crazy murder bot. But,” she said as she looked at Pepper with a fierce look on her face. “That doesn’t mean that I won’t offer my help when it so obviously needed, I am a Mutant first and that means that if my powers will give the Avengers the upper hand in something or another that I will offer it willingly. I will jump into the middle of where the danger is at just to help and to make sure my people – my family – is safe and comes home relatively unharmed.”

“You nearly died!” Pepper basically screamed at Norah, frustrated angry and frightened for the young woman that Tony had taken in and that Pepper had let into her circle of people she cared for.

“I KNOW!” Norah yelled right back in frustration. “I know I nearly died Pepper, god I knew it the moment I got shot and I knew that I would more than likely end up dying when I decided to save Pietro and Clint.” She said and then gave a dark and hollow laugh. “Do you know what it feels like to feel bullets enter your body, what it feels like to feel them within your body and know their exact place, how painful it is to be shot yet how numbing it is at the same time, I could feel my blood oozing out of me Pepper, I felt myself dying.” She said to her darkly and crossed her arms under her chest and shook her head angrily. “Trust me; I know I nearly died Pepper. I felt it happening.” She told her.

After that the two females stayed put and looked at one and another and then glanced around the room, neither was happy with the other and both realized that they were at an impasse so to say. Pepper was angry that Norah had gone with Tony and the others and had gotten herself injured so severely and wanted her to promise to never go along with them ever again even though she was an adult and Norah wanted Pepper to realize that she was an adult and that what she did was of her own choice and that it was the right choice, helping her friends would always be the right choice as far as she was concerned. 

“Look,” Norah said finally as she looked into the pained gaze of Pepper, who was probably thinking about all of the scenarios that could happen to Norah if she joined the Avengers – she’d rather be a consulting Avenger or on-call Avenger. “I love, absolutely love that you are so concerned for me. There were times when I thought I didn’t have anyone that was that worried or concerned about me, but Pepper I made my own choices and those were good choices no matter what you think. What I did was for the good of my friends and for the people of the world. Ultron wanted to kill off the human race, with my powers I was able to help and make a dent into his army. I was able to help my friends and family and that will always be an important thing to do.” She told her with a small smile on her face “I get that you worry and that you already have to worry more than enough for Tony and his antics but I have powers and I can’t just not use them when I know I can help people. I helped defeat Ultron, I helped and made a difference and that difference saved Pietro and Clint and who knows how many other Sokovians. If I hadn’t of done what I did and gotten shot in the process then Pietro would be dead Pepper, Clint would possibly be dead and that kid. If I hadn’t of gone with and helped everyone then who knows who may or may not have died.”

“Norah-“ Pepper began in a subdued tone of voice but Norah shook her head at her.

“You need to let go a bit Pepper, you need to let me live my life and stop wishing for me to have a normal life and let me live the life that I have. Let me live this crazy and unconventional life that I have here at the tower with the Avengers, let me make mistakes and if I want to, let me go on missions with everyone.” Norah said to her and then ran her hands through her long curly blonde hair which some days she really considered cutting but could never bring herself to do. “I get why you are angry and you have a right to be angry, we should have told you what was going on and what we were doing or left a hint of some sort but we didn’t. We could have died and you would have been none the wiser until Fury or someone had contacted you and that wouldn’t have been fair to you.” She told her. “But Pepper, please, please let me live my life how I want to. I already have too much going on with my family coming to see me, the first time I will see them in almost eight years and on top of that my ‘father’,” she said sarcastically. “Is coming with and that’s a whole shit storm in itself. I can’t take this sort of conversation. Just accept me doing what I want when I think it’s for the best, I’m not about to go against an army of aliens by myself or anything but if they need help and if my powers will benefit them I’ll help if I can. Please?” she asked her, begged her with her dark colored brown eyes.

Pepper looked at Norah and gave a heavy sigh, “Stop giving me that puppy dog look, it only works on Tony and on me when I’m drunk.” Pepper said to her which made Norah give a snort of amusement. “I’m not happy, you know this and I think we’ve discussed how angry I am and how scared I was when I heard what happened. I’m angry that you put yourself in that position and that you got shot and nearly died, I’m glad that Clint and Pietro are alive because of what you did but I hate that you had to do it.” She said and gave a small smile to Norah. “I’m not your mother so I can’t dictate what you can and cannot do and for some odd reason I get the feeling that even if I was that you wouldn’t listen.” She said which made Norah give a sly smirk and shrug of her shoulders, a way of saying ‘what can you do’. “I’ll do my best to not comment or demand that you not go with Tony and the others when they do missions but all I ask is that you think hard before agreeing, that you be careful and that you make absolutely sure that you are as prepared as you can be and that you start training again with Natasha and Clint. I get you’re a Mutant but….just in case.” 

“All right Pepper, I’ll do my best.” Norah said with a half-smile on her face directed towards the woman who worried like a mother even though she had no kids nor did she want any kids. 

When Norah had said that Pepper let out and frustrated sigh to which Norah just gave a laugh; she couldn’t help but tease people and push their buttons. 

Now that Norah and Pepper had things figured out all Norah now had to worry and freak out about was her family coming to New York which should be within the next day or two and quite frankly, Norah was terrified and was sort of dreading what was to come and could only hope that things weren’t too horribly awkward. She hoped that her mother didn’t think along the same lines that she once had and that her ‘father’ didn’t do anything too stupid or say anything stupid that would make Tony or the others decide to use violence upon him. In fact, it may be best to make sure Tony never meets or sees Tom face to face, he may end up beating him. 

Life, sometimes life was a struggle.


	27. Chapter 27

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~Cheri, Niki & Family ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

Seven years ago when Norah had been fifteen years old Cheri had made one of the biggest mistakes of her life – other than knowingly marrying an alcoholic. Cheri had said hurtful, painful things to her teenage daughter and had believed wholeheartedly in every word that she spoke to her; she believed that Mutants were a danger to the majority of the population, she believed that most Mutants would eventually turn on the human race, that they would eventually try and harm the humans, she believed that they all were a danger and that the ones who had incredibly powerful and dangerous abilities like Norah did would eventually let their powers rule them and put humans in danger. At the time, Cheri had believed what she said to Norah, she truly thought that Mutants needed to be subdued, she thought that they all needed to be ‘fixed’ of their abilities and that they needed to be kept track of because of what they could do and what they could eventually let themselves do – harm other humans, try and control them and/or kill and enslave them.

Before Cheri had found out about Norah she had read articles and watched the news about Mutants who nearly had killed the humans and who had wanted to kill off the humans because they were different than the Mutants and for that reason alone Cheri had decided that all Mutants were like that – power hungry, greedy and dangerous to everyone around them. For the first time in her life Cheri feared her daughter, feared what she could do and what she could become, feared that she would be like those other Mutants that she had read about in the news and that made her decide that she needed to ‘fix’ her youngest daughter of her Mutant powers so that she didn’t become dangerous to herself or the people that she cared for. 

It wasn’t until years later, after an argument that she had with Niki, did Cheri realize how completely and utterly blind she had been and how……how racist she was being towards her own daughter and the people that Norah was a part of – Mutants. Her daughter was a Mutant, a Mutant who had two incredible abilities and Norah loved her powers and enjoyed being a Mutant even though there was so much hate and violence when it came to Mutants. Cheri should have been supportive, she should have told Norah that she supported her, that she loved her and didn’t care that she was a Mutant but instead she had acted like those anti-Mutant groups and looked at her own daughter with fear and disgust and had told her that she wanted to ‘fix’ what was wrong with her even though there was nothing wrong with Norah. Cheri’s reaction to Norah being a Mutant was what drove her daughter to run away from home at the age of fifteen and really, Cheri couldn’t blame her for doing that. She would have done the exact same thing especially since Cheri had wanted to force Norah to go to the doctor’s office to try and ‘fix’ her of her Mutant powers. Cheri was glad that Norah took matters into her own hands and ran away before she was able to lose her powers because Cheri feared her abilities; being a Mutant was an integral part of what made Norah….Norah and Cheri was glad that she wasn’t able to take that away from her daughter. 

“Mom,” Niki said as she moved from where her daughter was sitting with her husband in the rather spacious seats of the cabin of the private jet they were in – a Stark Industries jet specifically – and sat down beside her mother who was looking at if she had a million things going on in her mind at once and was giving herself a headache. “Are you okay?” she questioned carefully, not sure how her mother’s emotional or mental state were at the present moment. 

At that Cheri laid her head back against the head rest of her seat and pursed her lips together for a moment before giving a dark, hollow sounding chuckle, “No, no I’m not. Not in the least.” She said with a sullen tone of voice, a pained expression playing across her face. “I’m heading to New York to see my estranged daughter who I haven’t seen in seven years and the last time I did see her I told her that she needed to be ‘fixed’ of her mutation, I told her that all Mutants were dangerous and that I refused to let my own daughter become one of them and now….now I’m beyond nervous at seeing her again and am on a jet to see her and hoping against god that she doesn’t hate me on sight and tell me that she hates me.” She said to her eldest daughter and paused for a moment to regain control of her erratic breathing. “And seriously? A Jet? We’re on a jet, a Stark jet which I still can’t wrap my mind around. I mean how in the hell does she know Stark or people who work at Stark Industries that make it possible to send this jet for us, is she some sort of high up researcher or scientist or something along those lines?” she questioned and then grasped at her hair in frustration and seemed to give an almost inaudible scream. “For fucks sake I don’t even know my own daughter anymore and the only one I can blame for that is myself and I hate it and hate myself that I allowed that to happen.” 

Hearing how frustrated and angry at herself her mother was Niki opened her mouth to say something, to reassure her mother that everything was going to be okay and work out in the end but shut her mouth before she could even form a word. She knew that no matter what she would say to her mother that it wouldn’t be enough to make her feel better about how she had treated Norah and how she had reacted to the information of Norah being a Mutant (she overreacted to the nth degree), she also couldn’t make her mother feel better about the fact that she didn’t know anything about Norah anymore either. Niki was in the same boat though; Niki didn’t know anything about the person that Norah was now, she didn’t know what her likes and dislikes were, her favorite color, her favorite food, what she was passionate about, her favorite band, she didn’t know what her favorite book was, who she was dating, what her job was, if she went to school and what for, she knew absolutely nothing about her sister. 

“How can you stand to look at me and be around me?” Cheri asked after a few minutes of silence between herself and Niki. “How could you bare to be around me all these years after what I said and did to Norah?” she questioned, tears in her eyes which she quickly tried to wipe away before they had a chance to fall down her face.   
Niki gave a sad smile and grasped her mother’s hand and gave it a tight squeeze, “Because you’re my mother and I love you.” Niki responded simply. “I love and I am sure that no matter what has happened in Norah’s life that she still loves you, even if you did overreact to her being a Mutant. You were brainwashed by the media, by what the media and what some articles online said about Mutants – that they were dangerous and needed to be watched.” She told her in understanding. “I believed at first, I believed that Mutants were bad and dangerous but then I paid attention, really paid attention and realized they were people just like you and I. That they were different then us, yes, but they were still people, still living and breathing people who deserved to have a normal life just like anyone else. We all make mistakes, some worse than others, and yeah, you probably shouldn’t have acted the way you did but it’s too late to take it back but it’s definitely not too late to ask for forgiveness from Norah. If she’s still just as stubborn as she used to be it may take a while but eventually she’ll forgive you.”

Hearing that Cheri gave a laugh, her youngest has always been stubborn as a mule and would outwait someone if she absolutely had to and would not change her mind for anything if she truly didn’t want to do something. It was one of the things that Cheri loved and hated about her daughter – her stubbornness. It was a good quality to have for the most part. 

“Do you really think she’ll forgive me?” Cheri asked uncertainly, she felt bad pouring her insecurities about her youngest onto her eldest daughter but there was no one else to ask and Tom, who had come with and was well on his way to being drunk courtesy of the Minibar, was not all that much help of much for comfort. 

Niki nodded confidently, “Yes, I think she will. Just channel your inner Norah and don’t back down until she accepts you, be stubborn like she is.” She said with a small smile on her face. 

Before either Niki or Cheri could say anything else to one and another on the subject of Norah, Niki’s daughter Aurora came over and shoved a piece of paper at Niki and looked at her with hopeful blue colored eyes. “Do….do you think she’ll like it? Auntie Norah?” she asked nervously as she pointed at the drawing she had done. “I don’t know her favorite animal but dogs, everyone loves dogs. It’s impossible not to LOVE dogs.” She said with as much conviction as a seven year old could. 

Niki smiled and pulled Rora in and kissed her on the forehead, “I think she’ll love it, Norah used to love baby animals and puppies included. Maybe when we get to New York you can find out what her favorite animal is and draw it for her.” She suggested with a smile on her face.

“Yeah!” Rora said brightly and then hopped back over towards her father and where her supplies of colors and paper was at the moment. 

Looking out the window of where she was seated Niki gave a quiet sight and closed her eyes for a few moments, it wasn’t just her mother who was worried about Norah accepting her again but Niki was worried as well. Norah may have called her before she went to Sokovia to defeat the bad guys or whatever, she wasn’t exactly sure on the details just that there was some guy that wanted to take out the human race and she was helping her friends keep that from happening, but just because Norah called her didn’t mean that Norah forgave her for siding with their mother all those years ago. Hell, Niki wouldn’t be surprised if Norah didn’t try and slap her or scream and throw things at her the moment she saw her again. She hoped she wouldn’t do that but Niki wouldn’t be all that surprised if that happened – she’d do the same thing in Norah’s position honestly. Niki loved Norah, she truly loved her and missed her more than anything and wanted….needed to have the sister relationship that they once had had. She didn’t realize what she was missing until it was gone; she missed late night talks, movie nights, make-up, talking about everything and anything, she missed having someone to talk about their parents to and complain about them to as well. Like any child. 

Looking a few feet away at where there was another row of luxury seats Niki couldn’t help but shake her head in disappointment at her father Tom, the moment that they stepped onto the jet he had made a beeline for the minibar and began to drink to his heart’s content and ignored the glares that both Niki and Cheri had thrown at him. Tom was definitely not all that fatherly, even after not seeing Norah in seven years the only thing he seemed to care about was drinking and being drunk as he possibly could for as long as possible, even with his ex-wife threatening him and telling him to stay sober until AFTER he saw Norah, he didn’t listen. He still drank and wanted to become drunk. If it was up to Niki she would cut her father out of her life, he didn’t really do much for her, her daughter or anyone in the family really but her mother still cared for him as the father of her children even if they were divorced so Niki put up with him and had as minimal amount of contact with him as possible. She only hoped that he would try and be semi-sober when he had the chance to see Norah again but she wasn’t about to hold her breath.

Rather than worrying about her father and his alcohol problem, Niki instead decided to worry about what she was going to say and do when she was finally face to face with Norah for the first time in seven years.


	28. Chapter 28

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~ Norah : Tony’s Lab ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

For the most part Norah was usually calm as a cucumber, as the saying goes, and barely ever panics. But today was definitely not one of those days where she was calm as a cucumber. Today was the day that she would be seeing her birth family for the first time in nearly eight years and to be completely honest she was freaking the fuck out at the moment. Norah had known for a good week at the least that today was the day that she would be seeing her family again; that she would be seeing her mother, her older sister and her……father again, she’s talked to Tony about, to Steve, to Wanda and Pietro but mentally preparing yourself to see people that you haven’t seen in such a long time and actually seeing them again were two very different circumstances. Now Norah was in Tony’s lab and was pacing back and forth in front of where Tony, Pietro, Wanda and Vision were standing, her self-appointed father perched on one of the tables eating whatever dried fruit he’s gotten his hands on this time and they were all watching her have a mini-freak out over seeing her family once again. Norah could only assume that her freak out was like watching a car crash – the only thing you can do is watch mesmerized as it happens. 

Norah thought that she was ready for this, she really did but now, now she realized that she really, really wasn’t. Not in anywhich way that you looked at it was she ready to do this. Okay, yes Norah definitely wanted to see her older sister Niki again, she wanted to reconnect with her and have the sisterly relationship that they used to have with one and another when Norah had been fifteen years old. Niki and Norah had been there for one and another through the hard times of life; they were there for each other during the stressful time of when their parents got divorced, for when their father started drinking and drug dealing even moreso than usual and they were there for one and another when they got disappointed by their father not showing up to a school event once again. 

They had always been one and another’s rock no matter how angry they could get at one and another. Seeing Niki again was different than seeing her mother and her dad, her dad Norah definitely knew she didn’t want to see again even though he did end up flying all the way to New York to see her – she doubted he did it all that willingly – but seeing her mom kinda scared her. The last time that Norah had seen her mother she had wanted to take Norah to the doctors so that she could get ‘fixed’ of her Mutant problem as he mother had put it. 

“Ms. Norah,” the Irish accented voice of Friday said throughout the lab that Norah and the others were in, waiting for Norah’s family to arrive at Stark Tower. “Ms. Potts has informed me that Happy will be arriving at the tower with your family in less than forty minutes.” 

When Friday had voiced that little bit of information Norah did not respond all that receptively, in fact she had instead given a dread filled groan and then threaded her fingers through her massively curly hair and tugged at her roots making her hair look even messier than it usually did. “Awe shit, shit, shitty, shit.” She said to herself as she continued pacing back and forth in front of Tony, Pietro, Wanda and Vision. 

At first Tony had found Norah freaking out over seeing her family again completely hilarious, he may have even poked a bit of fun at her for how badly she was reacting which in turn only made her freak out that much more. But now, after almost an hour of her deteriorating slowly from her usual self and into ‘freak mode’ as she called it, well, it was definitely not nearly as amusing as it had first been almost an hour ago. It disgusted Tony that Norah would break down so completely and thoroughly at the news that today was the day that she would be seeing her family again; Tony may be an asshole a good portion for the time and have an unconventional way of showing that he cared for people but he truly would do almost anything for Norah. If Norah wanted the moon and the stars he would find a way to get them for her, if she wanted a Stradivarius violin he would buy it for her, if she wanted to move to the most remote place in the world but still have internet access he would make it happen. But taking how Norah felt about her family; the fear, the anxiety and the uncertainty……well those were things that Tony couldn’t cure Norah of no matter how much he wished he could. 

Norah was definitely a whirlwind of a person, it was like she was a flame and everyone was a moth and they couldn’t help but be drawn to her and her personality. She was stronger than most people gave her credit for, she was willing to help those she cared for without a thought to herself which she proved when she helped Tony and the other’s take out Hydra bases and then again when she had gone with them to Sokovia to take Ultron down. But seeing Norah who was usually strong, beyond stubborn, sarcastic, confident and painfully blunt revert into someone that Tony barely recognized made his stomach turn. He absolutely despised seeing Norah acting insecure with herself, he hated seeing her be much quieter than her usual self was and he hated that she hasn’t tried to joke or make some sort of sarcastic comment to ease the stress of the situation like she would have done any other time. This…this doppelganger was not his daughter, not in the least, this was not the Norah that he knew and loved and all he wanted now was for his Norah to come back rather than the one that was pacing back and forth in front of him. He wanted the one who wasn’t afraid to tell it like it is, the one who wouldn’t take anyone’s shit and he wanted the Norah that would call Nick Fury ‘Patchy’ right to his face without fear of retaliation or bodily harm.

“Norah!” Tony yelled in frustration at his daughter, startling Norah from her continuous pacing and making her jump a bit and look at Tony rather than the ground where she was pacing. “Kid,” Tony began as he looked intently at Norah who was definitely looking more frazzled as the minutes passed by. “I love you, you know that and I get this whole freak out thing that you are doing which you really are taking to the next level but you gotta stop with the pacing. You’re starting to make me feel drunk without the fun part of getting there. Relax, will you?” he asked, attempting to be soothing to her. “Everything is going to be fine.” He stated and hoped against hope that what he said would help calm Norah down – at least marginally.

Wanda, Pietro and Vision were watching as Tony tried in his usual Tony way to comfort Norah from all the worries were feeling but each of the three onlookers knew the moment Tony told Norah to relax and to stop worrying so much that the blonde haired Mutant was definitely not going to take that well. It definitely wasn’t going to make her relax or stop worrying. 

Wanda looked from Norah, to Tony who she shook her head at for the comment he made and then glanced over towards her older twin brother. “He should not have said those words to her, she is already feeling much worry at moment. Telling her to relax does not help.” She whispered to Pietro so that Norah could not hear her, Wanda may have powers to protect herself from any anger Norah may feel but that does not mean that she would want to be on the receiving end of her blonde haired friend’s ire. 

“No,” Pietro agreed with his sister. “But she does need to hear it.” He murmured as he kept his eyes trained on his girlfriend who he only wished to go to and envelope within his arms to try and comfort her but when he had first tried to do just that Norah had narrowed her eyes at him and stepped away from him, she had told him that she was too worked up to be comforted at the moment. “She is panicking and worrying more than should, she is going to force self into panic attack and that will not help situation.” He said quietly as he gazed towards Norah with worry in his blue colored eyes. 

Norah was a stubborn one, something which everyone who knew her could attest to and sometimes she didn’t like to ask for help even though she knew she needed and wanted it. 

When Norah had heard Tony say those words to her she slowly turned towards him and glared at him harshly, crossing her arms under her sometimes annoyingly well-endowed chest. “Relax? Is that what you just said to me Tony?” she questioned him incredulously, hardly able to believe that he had just said that to her even though he knew how she felt about her family coming to New York to see her after not seeing them in however many years.

Tony realized a little too late that maybe he should have worded things a tad bit differently than he did, with the sort of mood that Norah was in he knew without a doubt that he was about to be chewed up and spit back out again. Sometimes, he really did need to think about what he said before he said it, but then again if he did that he wouldn’t be Tony Stark would he. Considering he already dug himself a hole Tony figured he might as well finish what he had been saying to his daughter. 

“Yeah, I kinda did.” Tony responded with his usual blasé attitude that he tended to hide behind at times. “You need to relax Norah, you’re going to give yourself a condition if you keep going like you are.” He pointed out to her as he chewed on some of his dried fruit.

The man had a serious addiction to his dried fruit that no one could really fully understand. 

Norah put her hands on her hips and looked at Tony with a scowl, “I think I have a damn good reason to not be calm right now Anthony,” she said making Tony cringe when she had used his full first name rather than the usual Tony. “I’m about thirty minutes or less away from seeing my family again who I haven’t seen or made contact with in over seven or eight years. On top of seeing family that I estranged myself from I’m about to see my sad excuse of a father who I doubt even wants to be coming here, I’m going to be seeing my older sister who’ve I’ve missed more than anyone from back home in Minnesota, and I’m also about to see my mother. A mother who the last time I saw had been all gun ho about Mutants, was probably wanting to join the cheer squad for the anti-Mutant movement and had wanted to take me to a doctor to get fixed from my supposed Mutant problem.” She said a bit snidely and used air quotes when she said supposed Mutant problem – she’s still a bit bitter about her mother wanted to fix her of something that was definitely not wrong with her. “I have all of that to deal with Tony, do you understand. I am dealing with all of that, still recovering from almost dying from Ultron and yeah, sure, I may act like I’m fine and back to being the old me but I’m not there yet Tony. I am so not there. So excuse me if I’m having a bit of a freak out.” She said breathing heavily and then groaned to herself and pulled at her hair a bit. “I don’t even know how to feel right now Tony, do you get that. I have no fucking clue how to feel and I definitely have no idea how I am supposed to act around my family once they are finally here or what I am supposed to say. I have no idea if they came because they genuinely care about me, or if they came to see if I am still alive or maybe they decided to come all this way just to tell me that they hate me or something.” she said in a melancholy tone of voice, her eyes downcast to the floor of Tony’s lab and did her best to keep tears from forming in her eyes.

Okay, so Norah would admit that she was probably being a bit (very) dramatic and exaggerating things a tad bit but she couldn’t seem to help herself. The thought of her family coming to see her and being around her again and being in her environment terrified her – irrationally – and it was making her feel like she was thirteen/fourteen years old again which was the exact opposite of the person she was nowadays. She had been quiet, meek, barely spoke, was definitely not all that confident and hated confrontation. Not something she wanted to reminisce or become once again. 

“Awe, Blinker,” Tony said fondly to his daughter as he hopped off of the lab table and walked the few feet it took to get to where Norah had stopped. “You’re family loves you and cares for you, trust me, they really do. Your sister especially.” He told her sincerely as he cupped her face and pressed his forehead to hers.

At that Norah gave a shaky breath, her emotions beginning to really get to her. “How do you know?” she said in a shaky tone of voice. How do you know they love me and that Niki especially does. You’ve barely even talked to any of them.” She said to him.

“I’m Tony Stark.” Tony said, a smirk tugging at his lips as he pulled back from Norah and looked down into her brown colored eyes. “Just because you didn’t want to know anything about your family or keep tabs on them doesn’t mean that I didn’t.” he said and gave a slight embarrassed look and rubbed at the back of his neck, unsure of what she would think of that tidbit of information. “I figured you may want to know how they were or what they were up to so I kept tabs on them for you…..for in case you changed your mind. Your sister, Niki, she searched for you. She started searching for you not even a year after you had ran away. Xavier and the rest of those leather obsessed X-Men must have made it so you weren’t traceable or something, or never used your birth name once you joined your school because she never had much luck looking for you no matter how hard she tried.” He explained to her.

Hearing that information made the strong hold that Norah had on her tears break, she always missed her sister and desperately hoped that she wanted to see her again but she’s never been brave enough to actually find out if Niki wanted to see her. She’d rather fantasize about her sister wanted to see her again rather than actually finding out whether or not she wanted to and then ending up disappointed and heartbroken in the end. 

Stepping a bit away from Tony, Norah tried to desperately wipe at the tears that were forming in her eyes and rolling down her face but she wasn’t having any luck really. The more she thought about her family and about the fact that her sister has been looking for her almost since the moment she left, well it made her feel so many different emotions but the two most important ones being relief and love. 

“Moj mali bik,” Pietro said as he appeared in front of her, unable to take her tears and not able to resist comforting her any longer. “I tell you that your family will want to see you, you see.” He said to her gently as he cupped Norah’s face and wiped the tears that were falling down her face with the pads of his thumbs and smiled softly at her before he leant down and kissed her on the forehead in a loving fashion. “You will see they want to see you, we know your sister has wanted to see you and I know your mother and father will too.” He told her with confidence. 

Norah gave a tight smile at that, she hoped her mother would want to see her and hoped that maybe she’s changed her views on Mutants, because really what reason would she have come to New York to see Norah if she hadn’t changed her views on Mutants but her father was another thing all together. 

“Sure they will.” Norah said to him a bit bitterly, still not so sure that her mother and father really wanted to see her and not able to push aside her insecurities and fear about seeing them again and them telling her that they hated her and hated that shew as a Mutant. 

Giving a sigh Pietro looked down at Norah who was now resting her head on his chest – she was short so was unable to rest it in the crook of his neck like she wanted to do – and decided against saying anything to refute what Norah believed. Pietro has known Norah only a short time but he knew her well enough to know that she was stubborn and that almost nothing would change her mind when she had it set on something and she was determined to believe what she believed about her family, the only way to change her mind was to have her see them and talk with them and realize that they did love her – Mutant abilities and all. 

For a good ten or so minutes the five of them just sat there in silence; Tony going back to sitting on his lab table while staring off into space, Wanda looking towards Norah in concern, Pietro and Norah staying in one and another’s embrace and enjoying the feeling of being near one and another and Vision just observing all that was going on with the humans that he was surrounded by. 

It was then that Vision, who was normally quiet and reserved decided to speak up. “Norah,” Vision said gaining Norah’s attention who lifted her head from Pietro’s chest and looked towards the android like creation. “I may be young and I may not know much about human customs and relations but I have observed all of you that live here and have watched…..T.V. and done research to be able to tell that your family does care for you. Your family here in New York as well as the one in Minnesota. I do not believe that your family would go through all of this work to come here just to throw insults at you and degrade you for being a Mutant, it’s a lot of work for some small moment of feeling superior.” Vision pointed out to her as he walked forward and laid a gentle hand on her shoulder to which she turned her head so that she could see him a bit better (she swore everyone was a giant compared to her short height). “I have seen in this short month of being alive that families make mistakes – Tony proved that to me.” He said earning and indignant “Hey” from said mad scientist. “Families make mistakes; it is a part of being human. Sometimes those mistakes are horrendous and hurt us in unimaginable ways but all we can do is accept that our family is human and that humans make mistakes. Often. What we must do is try and accept them and move on with life.”

“But-“ Norah began to say but was interrupted by Vision before she was able to say much.

“I do not mean that you must forget what they said and did, but you need to accept what happened to and move on so that you can have a fresh start with your family. So you can have a healthy relationship with your family.” Vision told her knowingly, giving her a look that a school teacher would to an outspoken child. 

Giving a sigh Norah turned her face into Pietro’s chest and pressed her forehead as close to his warmth as she possibly could and just breathed his scent in for a few moments, hoping that it would help her mind calm down which seemed to be thinking so many different sort of scenarios at the moment. Closing her eyes, Norah reached up and grasped a bit of Pietro’s shirt and just breathed in and out as a way to clear her mind, she was definitely going to need a clear mind in order to deal with seeing her ma, older sister and her father once again. 

Pietro looked down at Norah and gave a sad smile, wishing he could take her worry away and the memories that she had associated with her family but he knew that he couldn’t and hoped that in the end everything would be okay. Wrapping his arms around Norah tighter, Pietro leaned down and kissed Norah on the forehead or rather what he could reach of her forehead with her having her head burrowed into his chest, and then gently leant his cheek against the top of Norah’s head and looked towards his sister who was staring at the both of them with a soft smile.

There was silence in the lab for the next few minutes but soon enough it was interrupted by Friday’s voice once again, “Mr. Stark, Ms. Norah. They have arrived.” Her disembodied voice said throughout the lab. “Mr. Happy is bringing them to the living room and Ms. Potts said that she will meet them there.” 

Hearing that her family was finally there Norah suddenly pulled away and out of Pietro’s arms and gave Tony a near frantic look, “Don’t make me see him, I can see ma and Niki but…but please Tony, please dad, don’t make me see him. I don’t want….I can’t see my father yet. Just, just Niki and Ma. Please.” She said as she looked at Tony desperately, her brown eyes wide and pleading with Tony to keep her father from seeing her which was something Tony was more than willing to do for her. 

“Hey, Blinker. Everything will be fine.” Tony said soothingly as he walked towards Norah and carefully ran his fingers through her hair. “If you don’t want to see your sad excuse of a father then who am I to deny you?” he asked, a playful smirk on his face. “I’ll have Friday contact Pepper and tell her that you only want to see your sister and your mom and to make sure your father doesn’t go with them, and if he insists and tries to force his way to see you. Well, I am Iron Man after all and we have Capsicle and Thor here to help if things get out of hand.” He said with a shrug of his shoulders. 

“All right,” Norah said with a small nod of her head and closed her brown colored eyes for a moment, took a deep breath and then opened them once again to look at Tony with determination. “All right.” She said resolutely. “I can do this, I can face them and I will not, absolutely will not break down or freak out anymore.” She stated, the last part more so to herself than anyone else in the room.

Hearing that Wanda gave a small laugh and approached Norah, “Yes, you will be fine Norah.” She told her with a smile. “You will see them again, you will talk and realize that they still love you and all will be well.” She told her encouragingly. “Now come, let’s go and see your family. Friday?” Wanda questioned. 

“Yes, Ms. Wanda?” Friday questioned throughout the lab.

“Where is Norah’s family meeting at?” Wanda asked.

“Ms. Potts has directed Ms. Norah’s mother and sister to the lounge on the fifty-third floor.” Friday had answered.

The said lounge was one that had windows on one whole wall, there was a balcony, a small mini bar and it also overlooked down into the room that Tony had his party at….the party where Ultron had tried to kill them all. 

“Let’s do this.” Norah said as she cracked took a deep breath and cracked her neck and then looped one arm through Pietro’s and the other through Wanda’s. “Are you coming dad?” she asked as she looked over towards Tony with a curious brow raised.

At that Tony gave a small smile, every time Norah called him dad with such sincerity he couldn’t help but smile and feel as if his heart was going to burst out of his chest from the warm feeling he got from those words. He never thought he’d enjoy being called dad, especially after the father that he had had but Norah made him enjoy it and love it.

Tony shook his head, “I think this is something you need to do by yourself kid, besides, if I go there with you and you and the family start arguing I might rush in there and do something stupid and very asshole like. So Pepper has told me.” He said with a wry grin on his face which made Norah give a laugh. “Friday will keep me updated on anything that goes on if things start to snowball. But remember, you aren’t Norah Sullivan anymore. You are Norah Sjoholm, my daughter, a powerful Mutant and stubborn as a bull. You can do this. You will be fine.”

“I know.” Norah said and then with that said Norah, Pietro, Wanda and Vision left Tony to his lab as they made their way up to the lounge that Friday told them that Pepper and Norah’s mother and sister were waiting in.

Wilst Norah headed towards wherever it was that she was meeting up with her family to be reacquainted finally, Tony stayed in his lab even though he desperately wanted to go with Norah to see her family…..well to see Tom and size him up in person rather than just over a computer screen like he had done when Norah had first came to live with him and Pepper. So Tony decided to try and be the adult of the situation and stay in his lab for a while, at least enough time so that Norah could talk with her family. 

Leaning against one of the tables in his lab and tossing a small wrench up and down in the air Tony thought about everything that has gone on in his life; losing his parents in a car accident, becoming a semi-alcoholic for a good long while, being a playboy and an asshole, selling weapons to whoever paid him enough money without caring what they would do with said weapons, turning a new leaf so to say, falling in love with Pepper, working to make clean energy, becoming a part of the Avengers, meeting Norah. So many things have gone on in his life and he’s changed so much over the years – for the better. Tony will always be a bit of an egotistical, self-centered asshole at times but things in his life such as being kidnapped in the Middle-East and nearly dying changed things for him. 

He became a better person, maybe not perfect because he is Tony Stark after all and he’s never going to be completely without flaws and without being an asshole once in a while, but he was a better person. And yes, even after changing his ways a bit he still made mistakes……really, really bad mistakes. (Ultron was one such mistake). But he’s doing his best to be the person that Pepper wants in her life and to be the father that Norah deserved to have from the start of her life. 

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~ Niki & Family : Stark Tower ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

It seems in the last week or so Niki has been surprised by her sister more times than when the two had been younger and that includes finding out about Norah being a Mutant. Niki was beyond curious about how exactly Norah knew Tony Stark. Because seriously, not just anyone can get a Stark Industries private jet sent for their families and not just anyone is brought to Stark Towers by Tony Stark’s former body guard and now current head of security of Stark Industries. Stark Towers held not just research labs and new technology that is being created by its scientists and by Tony Stark himself but it was also the home of Tony Stark, Pepper Potts and a good majority of the Avengers. 

Niki desperately wanted to figure out this mystery but for now she was just content at the fact that in T-ten minutes she would be seeing her sister face to face for the first time in almost eight years and that in itself was making her feel overly excited and nervous at the same time. Back when Norah had ran away, or rather before she had ran away, the two sisters had a close bond and told one and another almost anything and were always there for each other but Niki would fully admit that she had been drifting from her younger sister. Niki was in her twenties and Norah was fifteen, and yes Niki loved her younger sister but they were at an odd age and so she ended up drifting from her a bit and now she regrets that she let that happen. Hopefully, hopefully Norah would be willing to start over and that they would be able to have a sisterly relationship again without the drifting part this time. 

“Ms. Potts?” Cheri questioned, drawing Niki out of her thoughts and reminding herself that she was walking towards the common room/kitchen area of the living quarters of the tower with her husband, daughter, mother and father at the moment and was being led there by the famous Pepper Potts. 

“Yes?” Pepper asked as she continued to lead Norah’s family down the hallway in incredibly dangerous looking stiletto high heels.

Cheri looked a bit hesitant to say anything but soon found her courage, “Norah is okay?” she asked, looking at the strawberry blonde curiously. “You are absolutely certain?” she question, she needed to know without a doubt that her youngest and estranged daughter was all right and not on deaths bed after whatever accident she had in Sokovia. 

For a moment Pepper looked back at Cheri and gave her a comforting smile, “Yes, I am absolutely certain that Norah is all right. I saw her when she arrived here after her accident when she was still horribly wounded and I have seen her wounds personally and can tell you that they are basically all healed up. Though she is on strict orders to not do anything too strenuous, which includes using her powers.” She said and then gave a small amused shake of the head. “I’m surprised she’s been listening as well as she has, she’s downright stubborn as a mule when she wants to be.”

Hearing that made Cheri give a serene smile, she was happy to know that in the years that she hasn’t seen her youngest child that though she knew she would have changed quite a lot in the years that the stubbornness of her daughter was something that didn’t change. It was a small comfort to her to know that.

“She always was, from the second she was born she was a stubborn one.” Cheri said reminiscing about Norah when she had been younger. 

Within a few minutes, a cramped ride in an elevator and a short walk down the hallway, Niki and the rest of her family were finally led into the living room/kitchen that was a part of the living quarters of Stark Tower. Niki looked around curiously and saw a ginormous TV against one wall with a few couches and chairs spread throughout the room and shook her head at the size of the TV, she liked a decent sized TV but that one just seemed excessive. Then there was the kitchen which looked nice sized and open, but that wasn’t what made her stop and just stare like a weirdo. No, sitting on a few barstools at the kitchen island were a few of the Avengers – Captain America, Hawkeye and the Black Widow but in normal clothes rather than their super hero uniforms. 

“Clint, Steve, Natasha this is Norah’s family.” Pepper said taking charge and making introductions so that there wasn’t any awkward silence. “Her mother Cheri, her father Tom, her older sister Niki, and Niki’s husband David and their daughter Aurora.” She said as she pointed to each person. “This is Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton.” She told them, deciding against introducing them with their superhero counterpart title. 

Rora, who was standing beside her mother was looking at the three superhero’s in awe barely able to believe that she was near a rea life super hero and that her aunt she’s never met knew them personally! “You….you’re Captain America!” Rora said in excitement and then gave a sheepish look when her mother whispered her name.

When Rora had said that Steve and the other’s smiled at her, “Yes. Yes I am.” Steve said as he looked softly at Rora. “And you’re Aurora.” He said to her. 

“Rora. I like Rora.” She said to him nervously and looked away from his gaze nervously. “You’re my favorite Avenger.” Rora said quietly.

At that Clint groaned, “How come you always get the kids and I just get the old cat ladies?” he complained, a pout on his lips. 

Natasha rolled her eyes at her best friend, “Because it’s you, Clint.” She responded monotonously. 

Pepper shook her head at the antics of those two friends, Natasha who usually was very stoic and monotone and Clint who was serious but liked to joke around with the rest of the children. (AKA Norah and Tony). “All right,” she said gaining the attention of everyone in the room. “Cheri, Niki. If you two could come with me, I’ll take you to Norah in one of the lounges.” She said as she looked at them with a soft smile and then gestured to the hallway that they had just come from. “It’s a few floors up, we’ll have to take the elevator again.” 

Hearing that he wasn’t invited to go with Tom turned to Pepper with a hard look in his eyes, annoyed that he was being kept from his youngest daughter. His ex-wife dragged him all the way from Minnesota to New York to see their daughter who he hasn’t seen since she was fifteen years old; Tom didn’t want to fly all the way out to New York in the first place. He wasn’t fond of travelling, he didn’t like big cities especially ones the size of New York City and he didn’t like flying. He would have rather just waited back home in Minnesota where he could be at home and drink and watch whatever sports game was on and wait until Cheri and Niki brought Norah back home. But since he was here he should at least have the right to see Norah along with his ex-wife and oldest daughter.

“What? I’m not invited?” Tom questioned angrily as he shuffled forward a bit, the alcoholism was getting to him the older he got and he couldn’t really move as easily as he used to. “I’m Norah’s father, I want to see her.” He demanded as he narrowed his eyes at Pepper.

Pepper looked at Norah’s birth father and gave a sigh, it was obvious to anyone that looked at the man for more than a few moments that he had obviously drank the whole way from Minnesota to New York. He really was a sad excuse of a father. 

Pepper gave a placating smile to the man, “I’m sorry but that isn’t going to be happening.” She told him simply. “I understand that you want to see your daughter, I really do but for now only your daughter and ex-wife will be seeing Norah.” She told him.

“Why?” Tom demanded belligerently. “Why only them?” he asked once again.

At that Pepper gave an unnoticed sigh, “Because it is what your daughter asked for; she wants to see her mother and her sister. No one else.” She said bluntly, not really caring for any feelings she may hurt of his. “Now if you excuse me, I am going to bring Cheri and Niki to see Norah and you,” she almost growled. “Will stay here.” 

When Pepper had said that to him, Tom made to open his mouth to argue with her and to demand that he deserves to go with his ex-wife and daughter to see his other daughter but when Pepper narrowed her eyes challengingly at him he decided to keep quiet. Pepper was very calm and collected and could be very diplomatic with people when it was needed, she could deal with politicians and CEO’s of big companies but knowing everything that Tom had done, or rather what he hadn’t done for Norah and her sister and knowing the sort of childhood that those two had had made Pepper feel absolutely disgusted with the man that was in front of her. She didn’t want him anywhere near Norah, she didn’t want him in the building really but he was Norah’s birth father and so she needed to be civil to him at least. 

“Tom,” Steve said gaining the man’s attention. “Norah is pretty nervous right now, seeing you all again and probably just want to see her mother and sister right now because of something dame’s do. I don’t understand it.” He said with a shrug. “But I am sure that you’ll be able to see Norah later. She’s probably excited to see you.” He said, lying through his teeth which he hated to do usually but the situation called for it. 

Before Tom was able to say anything to that Pepper turned to Niki and Cheri with an expectant look on her face, “Are you two ready?” she questioned. 

At that Cheri nodded enthusiastically and turned towards Tom with a warning look on her face, “Don’t do anything stupid and try to not embarrass yourself.” She said to him and then spied the bar that was to one side of the living room. “You’ve already drank enough.” She said and turned away from him and back towards Pepper. 

Niki was excited and nervous about seeing her sister again and gave a sigh of relief when she felt David’s hand clasp onto hers and squeeze it supportively, silently showing her that he was there for her if she needed him.

“You’ll be fine Niki, everything will turn out okay.” David said to her as he gently kissed her on the temple and then in the middle of her forehead. “Don’t be nervous, this is your younger sister who you know.” He told her.

“I haven’t known her since she was fifteen, she’s changed.” Niki whispered silently, suddenly becoming even more terrified than she was before. 

David gave her an amused smile and brushed some of her hair behind her ears, “You’ll get to know her again, but she’s your sister. You don’t need to worry.” He said supportively. 

Niki took a deep breath, nodded at David before she looked at her daughter. “Stay with dad and be good, okay.” She said and looked at Rora waiting for an answer. 

“I want to come with.” Rora said pouting a bit and crossing her arms, looking a lot like the aunt that she’s never had the chance to meet. 

At that Niki smiled, “I know, I’m sure Norah really, really wants to meet you to and to know all about you. But Mom and grandma need to talk to her first. We got a lot of things to talk about. Okay.” She said to her.

“But-“

Natasha interrupted, “Hey, maybe while your mom and grandma do that Captain America can tell you about his adventures saving the world.” She said an almost half smile appearing on her face. 

For a moment Rora contemplated her options before she sighed and nodded her head, “Okay,” she said and then pulled a piece of paper out and handed it to her mother. “Give this to her for me?” she questioned hopefully. 

Niki shook her head, “How about you give it to her when you see her.” She said with a smile. “Be good.” She said and then left along with Pepper and her mother to go to whatever lounge it was that they would be meeting Norah at. 

~_~_~_~_~_~.~_~_~_~_~.~_~_~_~_~.~_~__~_~_~.~_~_~_~_~.~_~_~_~.~_~_~_~

Norah, Pietro and Wanda arrived at a set of stairs that would lead Norah to the lounge that Pepper brought her mother and sister to and now she was even more nervous than before and felt as if she was going to throw up. On top of that she was freaking out about her clothes, which is completely ridiculous but she wanted to look nice for her family but she didn’t want them to think she was trying to impress them or one up them. She had decided on a simple grey burnout t-shirt that had the different types of sharks on it, a deep green asymmetrical zipup hoodie and a pair of skinny jeans and her high tops. But now she was thinking maybe it was too casual, maybe it would make them think that she didn’t care about seeing them, maybe – 

Norah was distracted from her thoughts by a warm pair of lips kissing her lightly on her own, blinking a few times Norah looked up and saw Pietro who was standing a few inches from her a smirk on his face at how she was reacting at the moment. He reached forward and brushed a few strands of her curly hair behind her ear but most escaped his efforts – curly hair is not easily managed, especially Norah’s. 

“Moy mali bik, you will be fine, I promise you.” Pietro said to her as he rested his hands on Norah’s hips and stepped a bit closer to her so there was almost no space between the two of them. “Think of inner strength you have. You faced Ultron, you faced many things in life and you were shot many times and yet you live still. You are strong, and if you can do those things you can face family you haven’t seen in long time.” He told her, fully believing that Norah would be able to do this. 

Norah was glad that Pietro felt that strongly about her and about what she was about to face but she was not so sure that she was strong enough to do this, she was nervous beyond belief and felt as if she was going to explode into tiny little pieces from how nervous she was feeling at the moment. 

“I-“ Norah began but closed her mouth and shook her head.

Wanda looked at her newest friend, a friend who she has grown to care for. “Norah, you must find your inner strength. You are an Avenger, you help fight bad guys, you do good in the world, you are stubborn, determined and if you are half of those things then you can do this You can go up the stairs and see family again. Reconnect with them again. Do not be nervous, they love you. They want to see you. They would not come all this way if they did not want to.” She told her. 

“But what if-“ Norah began again but was unceremoniously pinched in the ribs by Wanda. “Ouch! What the hell?”

At that Wanda gave her a pointed look, “Do not act stupid, I know you are smarter than that. You will be fine, you will march up there and talk to your family.” She said and crossed her arms. “You understand?”

Norah looked at Wanda and then up at Pietro and raised a brow, “When did your sister get so bossy?” she questioned rhetorically to which Pietro just laughed and laid his forehead into the crook of Norah’s neck. 

Wanda stepped forward and hit Pietro gently in the shoulder, “Pietro! Let Norah go, it is time for her to see family. You can have your way with her later. Now is time for her family.” She said and pulled him away from Norah which he did reluctantly. “You will be fine Norah, everything will work out. Be brave.” She said to her and then gently pushed Norah up the stairs towards the lounge where her family was waiting for her at.

“I will be waiting moj mali bik. Good luck.” Pietro said and then with that both Pietro and Wanda were gone and out of Norah’s sight before she had a chance to beg them to go with her to face the music so to say.

Giving a sigh Norah slowly made her way up the stairs to her family.


	29. Chapter 29

~_~_~_~_~_~_~ Steve, Natasha & Clint: Common Room ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

It was like watching a car crash, it was horrible to watch but you can’t bear to pull your eyes away from the scene. Steve, Natasha and Clint were in the common room/kitchen area with Norah’s father Tom, who had decided to make himself right at home at the mini bar that Tony had. In hindsight, considering what everyone knew of Norah’s father, they probably should have hidden the minibar or something considering this was one of the possibilities. 

“My damn daughter…..won’t even let me……stupid…..people.” Tom mumbled to himself as he glared down into whatever alcoholic drink he poured himself, Norah was his daughter and he didn’t understand why he couldn’t see her.

Steve, Clint and Natasha were all in the kitchen part of the room and were sitting on the stools while watching this unfold, Tom definitely wasn’t hesitant or going slow with the alcohol in Tony’s collection and was making sure to grab the top most label he could find. (Not that Tony bought anything but the best as it was). But all three of them had their eyes trained on Tom unsure of how he may act once he got a certain amount of alcohol in his system, he was already talking to himself angrily about what Pepper had said to him and about how he wanted to see Norah as well. They all just hoped that he was still like Norah had described him – a lazy drunk. 

“Tom?” Steve questioned as he slowly approached the drunk man who looked at least ten years older than his actual age, one of the effects of alcoholism. “Tom, maybe you should slow down a bit or stop for a while and wait. I’m sure Norah wants to see you after she’s done talking with her mother and sister.” He said to him, thankful that Norah’s sister’s husband and daughter had gone off with Thor and Vision to do who knows what.

“You know…..” Tom started to say. “You know, I didn’t want to come here. I’ve never left Minnesota before, I wanted to wait till Norah came back.” He said drunkenly. “I didn’t want to come but my ex-wife guilt….guilt tripped me into coming here. I just wanted to stay home and drink but instead I’m here.” He said and then knocked the drink back in one gulp. “I come all this way and my damn daughter doesn’t even want to see me.”

Steve looked over at Natasha and Clint for a moment before back towards Tom, “Maybe you should stop for the night, you’ll be seeing Norah later.” He said hesitantly, uncertain if that was the truth or not. 

“I haven’t had enough yet.” Tom said as he started to pour himself yet another drink and then turned away from Steve.   
Steve stared at the back of Tom for a few moments and shook his head at the man, he understood that alcoholism was a disease and back in his day drinking was one of the things that helped people through the day but it was a dark time back then. It was sad to see the father of someone who he considered friend and family like this, it was sad that Norah’s father has been like this a majority of her life and that he didn’t even seem to want to be there to see her and would rather be back home drinking his day away. 

Giving a sigh Steve walked back towards the island of the kitchen and took a seat on one of the stools once again. “All he wants to do is drink.” He said quietly to Clint and Natasha. 

“I wouldn’t be surprised if he had a bit of Russian blood in him,” Natasha said offhand as she looked at the older man. “I’m surprised he’s still upright and not falling over or passed out yet.” She said.

“Alcoholics do develop a high tolerance after years of abuse.” Clint said quietly as he narrowed his eyes at the grey haired man that was Norah’s father.

For a while the three of them just sat at the kitchen island and watched Tom continue to drink himself into oblivious or rather unconsciousness, the man seemed to still be mostly cognizant and aware of his surroundings. Surprisingly.   
“Maybe we should get Tony down here,” Steve said quietly as he looked at Natasha and then at Clint who was munching on some sort of snack food that was within the cupboards. “Have him deal with Tom or at least have him get Tom somewhere that he can pass out at rather than out here.” He said with a nod of his head to the room.

“Do you really think that’s the smartest idea?” Clint questioned as he looked at Steve with a raised brow, a curious look on his face. “You know how Tony feels about Norah’s birth father.” He whispered to him so that Tom wouldn’t be able to hear what they were talking about at the moment. 

At that Steve shrugged and raised his hands in defeat of the situation, “Do we really have a choice? We can’t let him keep on drinking like he is.” He said. 

It’s not that Steve wanted to contact Tony and have him come down to deal with Tom, he knew how Tony felt about Tom and knew that anytime the two would interact would be strained but someone had to do something about Norah’s father drinking the night away and being belligerent which he was starting to be. When Norah had first described her father as uncaring, a drunken alcoholic and the sort of person who should have never been a father Steve had thought she was being overdramatic a bit but after talking with Tom a bit and seeing how he was, he had a feeling that Norah may not have been exaggerating. Only time would tell how bad Tom truly was. 

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~ Tony ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

For the last twenty minutes or so since Norah left Tony had to repeatedly keep on reminding himself to not leave his lab, to not head up those stairs that would lead to the lounge where Norah was reuniting with her mother and sister. Seeing them again was something that Norah had to do alone, without him listening from around the corner. He may have been tempted to watch on camera but he held himself back from doing so, no matter how much he wanted to hear what was going on and what she was saying to them. Another thing he had to keep on telling himself was that Norah wouldn’t leave him or Pepper, that she wasn’t about to go up to her room and pack all of her shit up and leave with her real family. Tony was her father, Pepper was like a mix of an older sister and a mother all rolled up into one being, Steve was the goody two shoes brother, Natasha was the anti-social sister who could kill you with one look, Bruce the quiet uncle (when he was there, he was still MIA), Thor…..well no one could really describe what Thor was to this weird, mismatched family, and Clint was another brother. This was their dysfunctional family; all of the Avengers, as well as Vision, Pietro and Wanda….even if Tony still wasn’t all that fond of the speedster as of yet. 

He was a jealous man, Tony knew that about himself and would fully admit that among other less than savory attributes of his personality. He hated, absolutely hated that Tom was here in his tower, he hated that Norah had to grow up with a father like Tom who was barely a father and was almost just as bad if not worse than Tony’s own father had been. It took a lot out of him to call Norah’s family and let them know that she had been injured, to tell them somewhat of what had happened and then it took even more out of him when he invited them to New York…..even Tom who he wanted to veto coming. But he did it all because he loved Norah. Norah may not say it all that often or at all really, but she missed her mother and sister, she loved them so much and it hurt her to not talk to them or see them and so Tony invited them so that she could rekindle the relationship she had had with her family. Tony doubted that Norah wanted to reconnect with her father but apparently Tom was a package deal when it came to her family coming to see her and so, until Norah told him to send Tom away he would be staying. He really hoped Norah asked him to send Tom back to Minnesota, though he wouldn’t dare to say that out loud near Pepper or she’d have his head and balls. He always seemed to be surrounded by violent women. 

“Mr. Stark?” Friday’s familiar voice said.

“Yes?” Tony questioned back, an irritated tone in his voice which was only because of the fact that he had just been thinking about Norah’s father and how he had treated Norah and her sister while they were growing up. “What is it? Can’t you see I’m doing mad scientist shit here?” 

At that Friday gave a sigh, “I do not have eyes sir.” She said. “I was asked by Captain Rogers to contact you and have you come to the common room, they are having problems with Miss Norah’s father. He is drinking and will not stop.” She said.

Hearing that Tony gave a derisive scoff, “Yeah, go figure.” He said sarcastically. “Fine, fine, fine. I’m on my way. Probably a bad idea to have me go there but shit happens.” He said offhand as he gave a flippant wave of his hand and hopped off of the chair he had been sitting in and made his way out of his lab and down to the closest elevator to take him to where the common room/kitchen was at. 

When Tony did arrive in the main living area of the tower it only took him a few moments to assess the situation before he had the urge to walk right back out, Tom was at the mini bar he had built which was less a mini bar and moreso a somewhat fully stocked bar. Tom was still standing so that was a surprising fact. 

“I see you helped yourself to my bar.” Tony said evenly as he walked further into the room, gaining the attention of Tom, Steve, Clint and Natasha. “And you didn’t even ask first, how rude.” He said to him snidely as he walked arrogantly into the room and leaned against one of the counters of the kitchen and looked at Tom. 

The only time that Tony has seen Tom was through a computer screen that that didn’t truly depict the man that was now in front of him; Tom was a man in his early fifties but the fact that he’s been abusing alcohol and drugs for a couple decades if not longer made him look as if he was ten or so years older than he was supposed to look. Norah’s birth father had grey/silver long wavy/curly hair that reached just above his shoulders, a scraggly looking beard that could deal with being cleaned up a bit, he had a belly on him, he looked frail and had bruises along his arms, he had a haggard look on his face, his eyes were yellow tinted which was a definite sign of alcohol abuse. All in all there was not one damn thing about this man that reminded Tony of Norah, if there had ever been a resemblance between the two it was long gone now because of the toll the alcohol and drug abuse has taken on the man’s body. 

“Figured it was here for a reason.” Tom said to him as he pushed himself away from the bar and somewhat steadily made his way over towards Tony – a battle of the fathers was about to start from the looks of it. 

Natasha looked between Tony and Tom and couldn’t help but give a little amused grin at the current situation, “This is going to be good.” She murmured to Clint and Steve, the latter of whom gave her a pointed look for finding amusement in this sort of situation. 

“Really, Natasha?” Steve questioned her with a sideways glance before turning his attention back on Tom and Tony.   
She just shrugged and then turned back to look at Tom and Tony, both of whom were giving one and another stare down. 

For a while Tony just leaned there against the counter with pursed lips while looking at Tom who was looking at Tony with narrowed eyes, an annoyed and possibly angry look on his face. Neither saying anything to the other, but quite obvious that these two were not going to get along whatsoever which wasn’t going to happen in the first place as it were anyways. 

“I think you’ve had enough, don’t you?” Tony questioned finally as he gestured towards the bar and raised a brow. “Don’t you want to be sober enough to…..to talk to Norah later?” he questioned, struggling with saying that sentence since he really didn’t want to say it and since he knew that Norah didn’t really want to see the man whatsoever. 

At that Tom glared, “I would have been to see her already if that stupid woman would have let me go with to see Norah.” He replied, a scowl on his face at the fact he hasn’t seen his long lost daughter as of yet. 

It took him a moment but Tony realized that Tom was talking about Pepper, okay, so he got why Tom called Pepper that and as much as he didn’t want to admit it Tony would probably be just as annoyed and angry as Tom is if he was told that he couldn’t see his daughter but Tony really didn’t like Tom so he didn’t care at this precise moment. But he definitely wasn’t going to be going around insulting his girlfriend. 

“That woman,” Tony said snidely to Tom, gaining the man’s attention. “Who you called an idiot, is my girlfriend and the CEO of Stark Industries. I’d be careful with what you say.” He pointed out to him. “She’s also important to your daughter.” He told him.

“That’s nice.” Tom said uncaring. “Now, I’m going to go and find Norah and see her and you can’t do anything to stop me. I don’t know why she didn’t want to see me along with her mother and sister but I’m going to see her.” He said and crossed his arms over his chest, challengingly to Tony. 

At that Tony gave a laugh and moved to be in the way of Tom so that he couldn’t move towards the hallway where the elevators were, there were a lot of floors in the tower so the likelihood that Tom would be able to figure out where exactly Norah, her mother and sister were talking was slim to none but Tony would still rather not chance it. 

Tony raised his brow at Tom, “Yeah, no. You’re not going to be heading after Norah and barge in on her talk that she’s having with her mom and sister, she specifically asked for it to just be the three of them and no one else. So sadly,” he said sarcastically and a bit cruelly. “You’re just gonna have to sit on your ass and wait your damn turn. And if you even want a sliver of a chance to talk with Norah you’ll stop fucking drinking for the rest of the day, have as sober of a conversation as you can have with her.” He said to him, a disgusted look on his face for how Tom was acting and the fact that he couldn’t hold himself back from drinking since the moment he stepped into his tower. 

There was only silence for a few moments as Tom and Tony stared each other down, both with anger in their eyes but soon enough Tom broke the silence and poked Tony hard in the chest. “I….I don’t care if you are Tony Stark, I don’t care that you are this damn billionaire who throws money around like it’s candy. You won’t stop me.” He said with determination in his voice. “Norah is my daughter and I,” he said pointing to himself. “Am her father.” 

Tony had to hold in the urge to scoff at that statement; he knew all about tom and the sort of person he was, about the sad excuse of a life he led and what sort of father he has been to both of his daughters and the sort of husband he had been to his ex-wife. Tom was a drug addict (okay, only pot and some pills which wasn’t all that bad, but still), and he was a chronic alcoholic who didn’t seem to care about anything in his life. 

Everything and anything that there was to know about Tom and the things he did – Tony knew about it. The things that Norah never mentioned to him about Tom he knew about, the things that not even Norah knew about her father Tony knew about that as well. When Norah had first come to live with Tony she barely talked about her family and when she did she never dared to speak about her father, rather leaving that subject in the dark but with a bit of coaxing on his part Tony was able to find out a bit about Tom. And what Tony couldn’t get out of Norah about her father he figured out by having Jarvis run a search on the man and to collect all and any files that were out there on the man, to be honest by the end of that search Tony ended up hating the man just a bit more the more he found out about him. He may have hated the man the moment Norah started to talk about, about how he was never the father of the year, about how he was never around and never seemed to want to spend time with Norah or her sister, how he always broke promises he made, how he never went to any of her elementary concerts and everything and anything in-between. As far as Tony was concerned Tom should have never been a father in the first place. 

“Father?” Tony questioned incredulously. “Do you even know anything about your daughter, either of them? Do you know Norah’s favorite color? Her favorite animal? Her dream job? Does she prefer tea or coffee? Do you?” he asked him expectantly. 

“Of course I know my kids,” Tom defended himself. “Norah’s favorite animal is an otter.” He said haughtily. 

At that Tony rolled his eyes, “Lucky guess. Norah has loved that animal since she was a toddler. What about the other stuff, what’s her favorite color? It’s been the same for about fifteen years now.” He said and looked at him, waiting for him to mess up.

Tom tried to think back and think what Norah’s favorite color was throughout the years, what she wore the most but he couldn’t come up with anything definite or any color that she seemed to favor all that much. “Pink?” he questioned, hoping against hope that he was right.

“Oh dear lord,” Tony said with a bitter laugh. “You really don’t know her do you? You’ve never known her.” He said with a disappointed shake of his head. “Norah hasn’t liked pink since she was seven or eight years old. She likes blue, specifically a turquoise or teal colored blue.” He said to him. 

Steve watching things from the sidelines could tell this was about to go downhill fast and decided maybe he should intervene and that calling Tony to help with Tom was really the worst idea he’s had in a while – Tony hated Tom even before meeting him. It was bound to go bad. 

“Perhaps we-“ Steve began to say but he was interrupted and ignored by both arguing men.

Clint grabbed Steve’s arm and looked at the taller man and shook his head, “Nothing you can do but let it happen.” He told him quietly. “Was bound to happen eventually, might as well get it out of the way right away.” He said with a shrug of his shoulders and then settled himself bac down in the stool he had been sitting in. 

So with that the three looked on as Tony and Tom continued their ‘discussion’ about Norah. 

“How was I supposed to know that?” Tom asked angrily. “I barely saw her, besides knowing a person’s favorite color isn’t that important.” He said to him. “It doesn’t change the fact that I’m her father.” 

Hearing that Tony stepped closer to Tom and glared at him heatedly, angry for everything that this man has done to the wonderful woman that Norah was. “No, you’re not her father. You’re her sperm donor. Nothing more.” He stated cruelly to Tom. “You donated half of your genetics to Norah and as far as I am concerned that means absolutely nothing in the long run. I,” Tony said and pointed to himself arrogantly, as Starks were known for. “Am her father. She calls me dad when the mood strikes, she comes to me for comfort that only a father can give, I’ve helped her the best I could when she was feeling down, I’ve scared boys off from her, I’ve supported her and loved her and I do love her. I love Norah like my own and as far as I am concerned she is mine. She’s my daughter and I have done my damndest to attend things that she found interesting or important. I went to her graduation from her University, I’ve gone on vacation with her and Pepper, a family vacation. I’ve gone on a road trip across the United States to all those boring historical sites because Norah wanted to see them and because she loves history. Hell, I’ve gone to the Opera with her and let me tell you that was a sick and twisted form of torture but I did it because I love Norah.” He said fiercely, breathing heavily after getting all of that off of his chest.

Tony wasn’t done yet though, no, he had only just started with what he wanted to say to Tom. “I don’t like you Tom Sullivan.” Tony said to him. “I don’t like what you put Norah through, her or her sister. I don’t like what you represent and the sort of person you are and if you weren’t Norah’s birth father I wouldn’t have allowed you in my building or even a fifty yard radius. But you are her birth father and if she wants me to send you away packing, I will. And I’ll enjoy every minute of it.” He said fiercely, he was protective of Norah and didn’t want her to be emotionally hurt any more than she already has been, especially from this….this sad excuse of a man that was standing in front of him.   
If you could even call him a man, a real man wouldn’t have been neglectful or uncaring towards his children or wife like Tom had been.

“How dare you, how-“ Tom began to say but Tony interrupted him.

Tony grinned at him, “How dare I? I’m Tony fucking Stark, I dare to do anything and everything I want to.” He said with a blasé shrug of the shoulders. “Friday?” he questioned. 

“Yes Mr. Stark?” Friday responded within moments. 

“Get Thor and have him help Steve and Clint escort Tom to a room that he will be staying in while he is here, a room that is nowhere near Norah’s.” he iterated to her. “And make sure he isn’t able to go and search for where Norah and her mother and sister are at.” He said off hand. 

“Yes, Mr. Stark.” She responded without hesitation.

Hearing that Tom tried to approach Tony but was stopped by Steve, “How dare you-“

“Yeah, yeah. You already said it.” Tony said with a wave of his hand in Tom’s direction. “How dare I and all that jazz. I don’t care. Now, I’m going to leave and do things that people of a sad intellect such as yourself won’t understand. So, buh bye.” He said with a wave and then waltzed his way out of the common room/kitchen area before he had the urge to break Tom’s face in with his fist. Something he was really fighting to do at the moment. 

Once Tony had left the room Natasha, Steve and Clint exchanged looks with one and another at what had just happened in front of them. Tony had definitely vented and complained at Tom to his heart’s content, probably something that he has been itching to do since he found out about Tom and the sort of father and person he was. 

“Well,” Natasha said as she looked at the other occupants of the room. “That went better than expected.”


	30. Chapter 30

The idea here was for Norah to head up this flight of stairs that she was currently standing in front of, but, well, she hasn’t really moved one single foot to do just that. The truth of the matter is that she’s scared, scared to go up a single flight of stairs to be reunited with her mother and sister after however many years of being apart. The thought of seeing her sister and mother again terrified the hell out of Norah so instead of heading up to the lounge where Pepper was waiting with her family at, Norah was just staring intently at the stairs as if it was some sort of medieval torture device. 

Norah thought that she had prepared herself for this exact moment, she thought that she had mentally prepared herself for seeing her mother and sister again, she talked with Pepper, Tony and even talked to Sam about this who was kinda like a counselor of sorts (usually for Vets, but whatever. That was beside the point). You’d think after preparing herself that much that she’d be all cool and collected, instead she’s just freaking out. She missed her family so, so much, her sister especially and the relationship the two used to have. But this…..situation was slightly terrifying and made her feel as if shew as going to get sick from how nervous she was at the moment.  
“All right Nor, you can do this,” Nora said, giving herself a pep talk. “You can walk up those damn stairs and into that lounge where your family is and you will see your Ma and sister again. Everything will be fine and filled with rainbows and butterflies or whatever. It’s been almost eight years since you last saw them, you can do this.” She said to herself determinedly, trying to do all she could to convince herself that everything would turn out fine. “You’re a strong, stubborn and fierce woman; if you are able to go up against Ultron then you can definitely do this Eleanorah Rosabelle Sjoholm.” She lectured to herself with a stubborn look on her face. 

Norah was excited and nervous about seeing her sister again, but her mother, well her mother she was downright terrified about seeing again. The last time that Norah had seen her mother there were words said that could never be unsaid; her mother had also stated that she wanted to take her to a doctor so that she could be fixed of her Mutant problem, so that Norah could live a normal human life. That had been the final nail in the coffin of their mother/daughter relationship so to say, when those words had been said Norah knew that there was no way in hell that she would be able to stay with her mother any longer. Now…..now Norah hoped that she and her mother would eventually be able to rebuild their relationship into what it once had been. 

Steeling herself for a moment, Norah closed her eyes and took a deep breath before she forced herself to walk up the stairs towards the lounge where her family was waiting for her – anxiously she assumed – so that they could finally be reunited. Cracking her knuckles once, a nervous habit of hers, Norah slowly and cautiously made the trek up the massive set of stairs and towards the lounge. Norah did her damndest to try and control the nerves and uneasy feeling that had settled in her stomach but no matter what she did Norah was unable to do so. The closer she got to the lounge the more distinctive the voices of her mother and sister got, they were so clear that Norah had to stop for a moment and cover her mouth with her hands to keep herself from letting a sad/happy/relieved cry out from hearing their voices and she may have possibly had to quickly wipe at a few tears that were forming in her eyes. It was more than wonderful to hear her mother’s and sister’s voices once again….it was heart-wrenching, beautiful and astounding all at the same time. 

Pausing at the top of the stairs Norah slowly crept forward so to not be seen or heard and hid behind a corner wall, looking around the corner she saw her mother and older sister for the first time in years. “Don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t cry you silly little girl.” She chanted to herself quietly as she studied both her mother and sister for a few moments, just to soak up being near them again.

Tony was so going to have a field day when he saw the video from this moment, Norah sneaking around the tower like a bandit or a burglar of some sort. 

Norah took a few moments to observe her mother and sister; both looked relatively the same but when sevenish years go by without seeing one and another the changes become quite obvious. Niki still had her medium brown colored hair but rather than going halfway down her back it now was kept at neck length, she looked older now but Norah assumed that was from her having a family and a business to run. (Norah did in fact end up looking at the files Tony had on her family). Her mother looked older than she expected her to, she still had brown hair but there was some grey throughout it as well and she just looked….aged. As if something had tired her out endlessly over the years, mayhap it was from life in general or her work, or maybe it had to do with the situation with Norah.

Shaking herself out of her stupor and to the present – creeping on her Ma and sister was definitely not what she was supposed to be doing at the moment – Norah rolled her shoulders, walked past the wall that she had been hiding behind and strode into the open lounge like she owned the place. Basically Norah channeled her inner Tony and did her best to put on a brave front even if she wasn’t feeling all that brave presently. The moment that Norah stepped out from behind that wall and walked into the lounge both her mother and sister stopped the conversation that they had been having with Pepper and instead stared at Norah as if they had just found salvation or as if they were a thirsty man who had just found water in the middle of a desert. 

“Uh, hi,” Norah said a bit awkwardly as she shifted from foot to foot, the whole nonverbal staring thing that both her mother and sister were doing at the moment was kinda creeping her out. “Sorry to keep you waiting.” She said while rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly. 

Seeing at Norah’s mother and sister were either still in shock or mute, Pepper decided to reply to Norah with an encouraging smile. “It’s fine Norah, we were just gossiping is all.” She said and then stood gracefully from the stark white accent chair that she had been seated in. “I’m going to leave you three to talk, I am sure you all have a lot of catching up to do. All right?” she questioned as she loved to Norah and into her dark eyes, silently communicating that if Norah wanted her to stay for moral support that she was more than willing to do so but would rather let her have some time alone with her family. 

Hearing that Norah gave a small thankful smile to Pepper, “We’ll be fine.” She replied. “Go and do CEO stuff or go bother Tony, I’m sure that he’s about to get himself into some sort of trouble by now. You know, making robots and shit.” She joked with a half-smile on her face. 

“Not funny Norah.” Pepper murmured to her as she made her way past Norah and out of the room but not before she had stopped to give Norah a supportive hug and a whispered, “Good luck.” 

“Thank you.” Norah responded in a whisper. 

Whilst this was happening both Niki and Cheri were just staring at Norah in amazement over how much she has grown and changed since they had last seen her at the age of fifteen. Back then Norah had curly hair but it seems that the older she got the curlier and wilder her hair became, she also had more womanly curves and had lost that bit of baby fat that all teenagers seemed to have a hell of a time trying to lose. Norah was still somewhat short from the looks of it, her hair was still a golden blonde color and still had the pale ivory skin tone that differed from the somewhat tanner skin tone that both Niki and Cheri had. But what both Niki and Cheri noticed the most while Norah had been talking with Pepper was that Norah held herself different now; rather than being a somewhat quiet, introverted and shy teenager she now held herself with confidence, a hint of arrogance and seemed…..playful which was the exact opposite of what either had expected to see from Norah. Seeing as Norah had been in a sort of goth stage when she ran away her…..being like this was not what they had been expecting, it was a welcome surprise though. 

Niki could hardly believe how much her sister had changed over the years, she had gone from the anti-social goth kid sister that she’s always known and loved to a beautiful, strong (from what she could tell and from what Pepper had told her and her mother), happy woman who now wore less black and more variety of colored clothing. Seeing her sister again made Niki want to cry but she was able to control it somehow and decided that she could not wait to get to know this new version of her sister and build a relationship with her. 

Laying eyes on her daughter, Cheri just couldn’t believe that Norah was but five feet from her and she couldn’t believe that shew as finally able to see her daughter once again with her own two eyes. She couldn’t believe that after everything was said and done all those years ago that Norah, her wonderful and absolutely beautiful Mutant daughter, was willing to see her again. If Cheri had been in Norah’s shoes she would have refused from ever seeing her again, she would have condemned herself for what she had said and for what she had wanted to do to Norah simply because she was a Mutant with incredibly powerful and sometimes dangerous abilities. Cheri will forever regret what she had said to Norah for the rest of her life, and if she has to she will beg Norah for forgiveness for the rest of her life.

“So, yeah.” Norah said breaking the silence that had settled between the three of them since Pepper had left the lounge. “I’m the long-lost daughter slash sister that you guys haven’t seen in seven and a half years, give or take a few days or months.” She said jokingly and bit her bottom lip, waiting nervously for them to say something. “Just wanted to put that out there in case there was any confusion.” She said, attempting to ease the awkward silence that was happening at the moment. 

Hearing that Niki couldn’t help but give a little laugh, “Glad that we got that all cleared up.” She said, a soft smile on her face and quickly brushed at any tears that attempted to form in her eyes, she was not going to be crying during this little family reunion. 

Rather than respond to the quip of her youngest daughter, Cheri slowly stood up from the couch she was sitting on (a couch that probably cost more than her car) and looked into Norah’s dark brown colored eyes that were identical to hers for but a moment before she strode forward and pulled Norah into a tight hug. A hug that was so full of relief, thankfulness, love and regret for everything that had happened that resulted in all three women being in their current situation. It was a hug that Cheri never wanted to release her youngest daughter from, being able to hold her daughter like this after thinking that she would never see Norah again. It was more than she could have ever asked for. 

“N…Norah.” Cheri stuttered out into her daughter’s wild curls as she held her as tightly to her as she possibly could, she had a hand pressed lightly against the back of Norah’s neck so to keep her embraced within her arms for just a few minutes. “God, Norah. I…I love you so damn much, so, so, so much. I really do, I know….I just, by god I am so sorry for what I said, for how I acted. For….for wanting to fix you and just for everything.” She said letting the tears she was holding back fall freely from her eyes and down her face, she didn’t care about crying in front of her daughter, all Cheri really cared about was letting Norah know how much she loved her and how much she regretted everything that happened. “There’s nothing, absolutely nothing wrong with you Eleanorah. Mutant or not, you’re wonderful the way you are and I love you. I know…know that there’s nothing I can say to make up for what was said and what was done. And Jesus, I wish I could go back in time and yell at myself, tell myself that I shouldn’t think along those lines or despise a group of people for being Mutants.” She said shaking her head and pulling away from her daughter so that she could wipe angrily at the tears that kept on forming in her eyes.   
Norah wanted to say something, wanted to interrupt her mother but instead she just let her talk, let her say what she needed to say. To tell the truth Norah wanted to hear what her mother had to say, she wanted to see the emotions on her mother’s face as she apologized and explained things to Norah and she wanted to see with her own two eyes that her mother meant everything that she was saying. So, Norah waited and let her mother get out what she needed to get out. 

“I made a mistake Norah,” Cheri said as she pursed her lips together, doing her damndest to not let her voice crack in front of Norah. “I made one of the biggest mistakes of my life that night and I ended up pushing you away and making you run away. All because I was terrified of what you were. And god, I wish there was a way for me to take back all that had happened and all that was said but…..but I can’t. I can’t take any of it back.” She said and closed her eyes regretfully. 

Norah always wondered how she would react to seeing and talking with her mother again, when she thought about how the first conversation would go she had envisioned that there might be a bit of anger and hatred for what was said and for what she had to endure because she had no other choice but to run away. But Norah could honestly say that she didn’t really feel any of that any longer, five or six years ago she definitely would have but not so much now. Okay, there was a bit of anger still and probably would be until she felt she and her mother had worked things out completely, but for the most part enough years have passed that Norah understood to a certain extent why her mother had reacted and said the things that she had. The media had brainwashed people into thinking that Mutants were dangerous, that they were ‘something’ that needed to be locked up and monitored at all times and sadly people feared what they don’t understand. Her mother included. Norah was hurt more than anything really. 

“Shh,” Norah said as she quickly wiped at the tears in her own eyes before cupping her mother’s aged face and wiping at her tears with the pads of her thumbs. “It’s okay, it’s okay Ma.” She said with a voice full of emotion and wrapped her arms around her mother and hugged her tightly and immersed herself in feeling her mother’s embrace once again, a daughter always wants to be hugged and comforted by her mother no matter how old or young she is. It’s a scientific fact as far as Norah was concerned. “It’s okay.” She repeated quietly. 

At that Cheri shook her head almost violently, “No, no it’s not Norah. It’s not okay that I said and did those things; it’s not okay that I drove you to running away. I…I’m a horrible mother.” She said with a forlorn expression on her face, angry at herself for how she had reacted all those years ago and angry at how many years she had lost with her daughter. “I am supposed to be a mother to you and I failed.” She said as she pulled away from Norah and began to slowly pace. “I failed as a mother, I am supposed to love you unconditionally, and love all of you no matter what you choose to do with your life and I should have loved you no matter what. You can’t change the fact that you are a Mutant and I should have accepted that part of you without hesitation, instead I…I just reacted the most horrible way I could have.” She told her.

Niki shifted and was about to open her mouth to comfort her mother but she looked from her mother and then towards her younger sister and knew the things that were being said right now needed to be out in the open if either Norah or her mother wanted to clear the air and have a clean slate to rebuilt their mother/daughter relationship from. So, she kept her mouth shut and watched but would intervene if it was needed. 

“Ma,” Norah started but before she was able to say more than that herm other shook her head. 

“No,” Cheri said as she clenched her fists. “No, I was not a mother in any way or form when I found out you were a Mutant. I shouldn’t have let the news scare me into thinking that you would lose control of yourself, I shouldn’t have thought that you needed to be fixed, that if we took away your powers you’d be fine and wouldn’t end up like those Mutants that always end up on the news.” She said and lowered her head for a moment and ran her hands through her hair in frustration – a habit that Norah also has. “I should have realized that not everything that they put out on the news was true, that not all Mutants are bad. I mean I’ve done a bit of research on that Xavier in New York and he’s doing good for his students.” She said.

At that Norah couldn’t help but give a small smile, “He does, he tries to help any Mutants that he can. Kids and adults alike.” She said with a fond smile, the Xavier’s teaching style, power wise at least, may not have benefited her all that much but they did help her and they do help other Mutants as much as they can. “He can’t help himself, he has a complex where he has to help anyone that needs it.”

“You know him?” Cheri asked, hopeful that her daughter had help with her powers from someone. “He helped you?” she questioned.

Norah nodded, “I ended up at Xavier’s a few months after I…after I left Minnesota.” She replied, not wanting to make her mother feel anymore guilty than she already does by saying the word ran away even if it is what Norah did. 

“Oh.” Cheri said lamely and cleared her throat. “That’s…that’s good. A good thing.” She said to her.

After that things got quiet for a while, neither Norah nor her mother saying much of anything to one and another and Niki waiting to see if either would say anything because the current discussion definitely was not over. Norah and their mother still needed to talk about a few more things before the subject was dropped about the whole Norah running away and whatnot.

Norah knew she needed to say something to ease her mother’s mind so the two of them could move on from what was said and done and get back to having a mother/daughter relationship once again. 

“Look, Ma,” Norah said gaining her mother’s and sister’s attention. “I was so angry back then, I was angry and pissed off, I was shocked and devastated all at the same time when you had said I needed to be fixed.” She said and paused for a moment. “I mean, I thought being a Mutant was the coolest thing ever. I first found out about being a mutant when I was seven or so, I hadn’t gained the blowing up things power yet just being able to blink from place to place as I call it. It was second nature, being a Mutant and being able to do things that the majority of other people couldn’t.” she said to her and gave a sad, forced smile. “I mean when you found out it wasn’t the best of ways admittedly, I mean blowing a shed up is probably one of the worst ways to find out about your daughter being a Mutant. But I thought that after giving you some time to think that you’d be okay, that you’d realize that I was still your daughter and that we’d figure things out. I never thought you’d want to fix me, that you’d want to take something from me that made me…me.” She said and closed her dark eyes for a moment as a few tears ran down her face. “I wondered what I did wrong, why you couldn’t accept me like I was. Wondered why I wasn’t good enough, why you couldn’t love me enough to be okay with me being a Mutant.” 

Hearing her daughter say those things broke Cheri’s heart, she knew that when she saw Norah again that she would be hurt over what had happened when she was fifteen, she knew that she would be angry over what was said and over the fact that Cheri hadn’t reacted like a loving parent should have. But Cheri was not prepared to see the hurt and pain on her youngest daughter’s face, she was not prepared for the heartache of seeing that pain on her face. 

“Norah,” Cheri began as she caressed the side of her daughter’s face lovingly. “I am so sorry. I’m so sorry I made you feel that way. There was nothing wrong with you, you never needed to be fixed do you hear me. You are perfect, Mutant powers and all.” She told her and leant forward and pressed a kiss to Norah’s forehead. 

“I’ve tried telling people that I’m perfect, for some odd reason they don’t seem to believe me.” Norah joked, a watery smile on her face but sobered up from her joking and began to speak of something more serious. “I love you mom, I always have even when I ran away. I’ve always loved both you and Niki and hoped someday I’d see you again and Tony offered to find you for me when he took me in but….but I wasn’t brave enough then. I couldn’t face rejection, just in case.” She said with an embarrassed smile. “I didn’t want to get my hopes up only for you to decide to not to talk to me or see me. So I decided to not do anything.” She said with a shrug. 

“Of course we wanted to see you!” Niki exclaimed from the couch. 

At that Norah gave a small laugh, “I was scared and didn’t want to be hurt.” She told them and then looked her mother in the eyes. “I love you and I forgive you for everything that had happened back then but it will take time to gain that trust and the relationship we had.” 

“I’m willing to be patient.” Cheri told her daughter to which Norah gave a smile to, happy that they were on the road to being what they once had been. 

“All right, all right,” Niki said as she gestured towards her mother and sister. “Yay, we got things figured out and are all on the same page. Now, is it time for story time?” she questioned, a grin on her face as she looked between her mother and sister, hopeful eyes. 

When her sister said that Norah couldn’t help but let out a laugh, she was glad that though a good amount of years have passed that Niki was still relatively the same person and hadn’t changed too much. The same of which could not be said about herself. 

“Nicole!” Cheri admonished, narrowing her eyes at her eldest daughter.

“What?” Niki said innocently. “Don’t tell me you don’t want to know what she’s bene up to since we last saw her.” She said. 

At that Cheri gave a sigh and pinched the bridge of her nose and wondered about her eldest daughter, somedays she thought that maybe Niki had been switched by another child or something. 

So with that said Norah gave a laugh, took a seat beside her sister on the couch, her mother following suit and began to tell both her older sister and mother about her life and about all the things that they had missed out on in the last seven and a half years that they’ve been separated. Norah told them about where she went when she had left Minnesota but not before she apologized profusely to her mother for stealing her spare car to run away in, she told them the states that she had gone through and that she had stayed in homeless shelters, slept in the car in front of apartment complex’s so to not draw too much attention and anywhere that she could really. 

Norah made the smart choice and decided against telling her mother and sister about the St. Louis incident, about the fact that she had been raped, her mother and sister both felt enough guilt as it was so there was no need to put even more on their shoulders. It was something that had been horrible for Norah to relive when she had gone to her therapy sessions, sometimes she still has flashbacks which were rare but they did happen once in a while and over the years she has come to accept and move on with her life and would rather not have to relive the story to her mother and sister. Norah loved her mother and sister and knew they would be supportive and sympathetic to what happened to her but all Norah wanted to do was move on and not think about what happened, it was a band thing that happened which very few people knew about (Natasha, Wanda, Pietro, Xavier and Hank McCoy being the only ones). She’d prefer to keep it that way. 

Norah told them about Xavier’s, how they had found her on the east coast and brought her back to the institution and offered her a place to live and learn like any normal teenager would get. She said that she met some great friends while living at Xavier’s – Rogue, Kitty and Piotr being the main ones. Norah then told them about how she had graduated early and at the top of her class and was accepted at some pretty damn good universities within New York and some of the surrounding states but rather than accepting one of those Norah had decided to move out of the country and go to Stockholm, Sweden to continue her education. At least she did until she accidentally blew up a housing development in one of the suburbs. Oops. 

Norah then explained her adventure of travelling through Europe in case the guy who had seen her blow up the housing development decided to tell the media and the authorities and have a witch hunt so to say which was something Norah didn’t want to deal with. She had told them in the end she had ended up in Romania where the head honcho of Shield had found her and offered to help teach her how to control her powers, better than Xavier’s did since the school’s techniques didn’t really do too much to help her. 

“It was through Shield that I ended up meeting Tony actually.” Norah said as she leaned back against the couch they were sitting on, a couch that Tony had to have cleaned because he had surprised Norah one day when she had a cup of hot chocolate in her hands and spilt it on the cream colored couch. 

Niki looked at her sister, “I’ve been wondering about that.” She said to her, as she looked at her sister intently. “I mean I’ve thought of all the possibilities of how you might know Tony Stark which ranged from you worked for him, he owed you a favor for something or another or that you were dating him possibly. I mean, it’s not every day that you get picked up by the Stark Industries jet.” 

“Oh, Jesus.” Norah said with a laugh and shook her head at the last obscure possibility that her sister had come up with. “Dating him? Pfft. Hell no, so not my type. He’s too short for me.” She joked before she got a soft smile on her face. “No, Tony took me in when Shield had brought me to one of their training facilities here in New York, Tony had been in the office of Nick Fury and well, I never called Nick by his actual title and Tony found that amusing. In the end it resulted in Tony offering me a place to stay while I trained with Shield, something that I still do. He’s done a lot for me when he didn’t have to.” She told them softly, a faraway look on her face.

Cheri pursed her lips, she was angry at herself for missing out on so much and not being able to help her daughter when she needed it but appreciated that Tony Stark had offered her a home, as odd as it was for him to do so. “I’m glad you had someone to look out for you. To help you.” She told her. 

Norah nodded her head and gave a bit of a smirk, “Tony is the most self-centered, arrogant, stubborn and somewhat of an asshole that I have ever met in my life and I’ve met a good deal of different sort of people especially with all of the Mutants that came to Xavier’s.” She said and gained a two odd looks from her mother and sister for describing Tony like that when she had just said he had done so much for her. “But at the same time, Tony is the most caring, wonderful, loving and self-sacrificing man that I’ve ever known. He’d give the moon if he could, though,” she said with a grimace. “I’d never mention that to him, knowing Tony he might just try to do that and he’s already got enough crazy ideas in his own mind.” She said shaking her head and then looking at her mother again. “Tony…..Tony may seem eccentric and batshit crazy, which I will admit he definitely is a good portion of the time but he’s been a great father to me. He really has.”

Hearing that made Niki glad, neither of them had the best father figure while growing up sadly and as the years passed and even after Norah had ran away Tom hadn’t changed whatsoever and didn’t seem to really care about the fact that Norah was gone or care about his only remaining daughter that he had the ability to talk to if he wanted. Tom cared about two things in life; drinking and dealing. So Niki was glad that Norah found a father figure to look up to, to talk to, to be a father to her even if he was a bit of an eccentric, genius, billionaire who may just be a bit batshit crazy. 

Norah then explained to them that she had just graduated from university with a double major in Linguistics and Public Relations, that she hadn’t really had time to look for a job or even look for any freelance work to do since not even a month after she graduated did Tony call her and ask for her to help him and the other Avengers in Sokovia and then she explained the whole hot mess that Ultron was. 

“You nearly died, didn’t you?” Niki asked quietly, in a subdued tone. “Tony, he didn’t tell me that when he had called me to tell me what happened but I could tell it was serious from the way he had talked.” She said, looking at her sister seriously and seemed to study her closer trying to find any signs of wounds she may have suffered from the fight against Ultron. 

“Yes, I nearly died.” Norah admitted, figuring they would have heard about it one way or another.

“Oh, Norah,” Her mother said to her, grasping onto her hand tightly at that new bit of information.

Norah patted her mother’s hand comfortingly, she knew that hearing about your child nearly dying was hard. It was hard enough for Tony and Pepper to hear about, as well as the rest of the Avengers and she could only imagine what her mother thought about it. 

“I did almost die,” Norah repeated. “I did it to save my friends from being killed, Ultron was in a jet that he stole and was shooting right in the direction that they were and I was the only one who would be able to get to them and get them to safety. I knew that there was a big possibility that I could end up seriously injured or dead but I had to, absolutely had to try to save my friends.” She said and closed her eyes at remembering that day, at remembering the fear for Clint and Pietro and remembering the feeling of being shot and the smell of her own blood. “I saved them but I ended up with serious injuries.”

Cheri breathed in deeply, doing her best to control her breathing that was very close to becoming erratic at the information that she had just found out about. A mother never wants to hear about her child being in danger let alone the fact that her child had nearly died, it was not something she ever had imagined for Norah and definitely not the sort of life she had wanted for her daughter.

“What were the injuries?” Cheri asked finally, in a controlled voice. 

Seeing the serious look on her mother’s face Norah decided to get right to telling her, “I was shot twice in the side,” she said pointing a bit above her hip, and then pointed at her thigh. “I was shot here, another up near my shoulder and neck and then the last place that I had been shot was right here.” She said and pointed to her chest. “I was shot in the chest; the bullet went through my lung.” She explained to them somberly, knowing that this was a serious conversation for both her sister and her mother. “I was in a coma for a while after my injuries, the doctors put me in a medically induced a coma so that my lung could heal up enough so that it wasn’t too painful for me to breath or anything like that. I’m banned from using my powers until Doctor Cho says it’s okay to do so though, they want to make sure I’m a hundred percent before I am allowed to do that or start my training back up.”

“Norah.” Cheri said simply before she pulled her daughter into yet another crushing hug, even more thankful that she was alive and well. “I’m so happy you’re alive.”

“Me too.” Norah joked with a wink.

At that Cheri shook her head at Norah, it would take a bit of time before she got used to this new version of Norah. This Norah was very different from the quiet, shy and somewhat anti-social fifteen year old version that she had known. 

“So,” Niki said looking at her sister expectantly and using a voice that made Norah suspicious. “I have a question.” She told her.

“I’m afraid of what it might be.” Norah said as she raised a skeptical brow in her sister’s direction. “Will I be willing to pay the price?” she asked playfully. 

Niki gave a smile, “I just was wondering, why could I never find you?” she asked, a curious look in her eyes. “I looked for you after you ran away. I searched high and low, looked all over the country and even outside of the country and no matter what I did was I able to find you. I even had my husband search and look up school records and everything, but nada.” She told her and looked at her searchingly, needing to know why she had been unable to find Norah. 

When her sister had asked her that Norah made a face before discreetly looking at her mother, wondering how she would take this next bit. “I changed my last name when I went to school at Xavier’s so it would have been pretty hard to find me without the right last name and well, Xavier’s keep a pretty tight lock on any information that has to do with the students.” She explained with a shrug of her shoulders. “After everything I needed a new start, I needed to make a new me that represented who and what I am.” She told her mother and sister and then gave a grimace. “I also changed my last name because I didn’t want to share a name with a man who had never been a father to me. I guess I just connected Sullivan with too many bad memories and wanted a name that I could make good memories with.” She said with a shrug. 

When Cheri had heard Norah’s explanation she wanted to open her mouth and say something about it, to tell her that her reasoning was a bit askew and that Tom was still her father no matter how absent from it he had been during her younger years and up until she had ran away at fifteen but Cheri controlled herself. Norah was an adult and could do as she liked and Cheri no longer could control her daughter and she needed to stay on Norah’s good side for the unforeseeable future, or at least until she had gained Norah’s trust again. Hopefully Norah would take the time to talk to her father Tom, and hopefully Tom would show Norah that he had missed her. But Cheri had a feeling that Norah would never accept Tom back into her life; Cheri loved Tom because he was the father of her children but he was definitely not father material and wished she could have changed him so her daughters could have had a better childhood but nothing she did or said ever made him change his habits. One of the reason’s they had gotten divorced.

Cheri decided to push those depressing thoughts away and concentrate on the fact that she was with her youngest daughter once again and that she had forgiven her for everything she said and done. That was a success in her book.


	31. Chapter 31

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~ Pietro ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

Once Pietro and Wanda both had left Norah at the set of stairs that would lead her to her family, the twins went to the library to catch up on all the things they missed which was something they’ve been doing since they arrived at Stark Tower two or three weeks ago. At the moment the two were sitting on a couch watching some YouTube video’s on the tablet that Tony had given to Wanda but rather than paying attention to what they were watching, something called Ted Talks, Pietro was distracted and worrying about Norah and how things were going with seeing her mother and sister once again. If Pietro did not truly think that this was something that Norah absolutely needed to do on her own he would have gone with her to the lounge where her family awaited her and would have been there with her for moral and emotional support, to be her…rock, as it is said and made sure that she went through with reuniting with them even if she was scared of doing so. 

“You are distracted.” Wanda accused as she turned and looked to her brother, a brow raised in his direction and a knowing smirk on her face. “Stop worrying, she is fine. You will see.” 

At that Pietro sent his sister a dark look, “I am not worried. I know she will be fine, she is with family, with sister and mother. Everything will be fine.” He said to her, feigning indifference.

When he had said that Wanda could not help but grin wider, sometimes Pietro forgets that Wanda knew him almost as well as he knew himself. She knew the in’s and out’s of him, she knew what he could be thinking by a simple facial expression (Without the use of her powers) and besides, they were twins and have barely been away from one and another since they moment they were born. So, really, there was no point in Pietro trying to hide the worry he had for Norah and what she was doing at the moment.

“Pietro,” Wanda admonished in a loving tone. “I am your sister and your twin, I know you.” She pointed out to him. “You worry for Norah and that is good thing, it means you care for Norah. But she will be fine. She is with family, reuniting with her mother and sister who she has not seen in many years, this is good thing for her.” She told him encouragingly. 

Pietro nodded at that, “I know this, she needs to see family again, she needs to reconnect and….” He paused a moment to search for the right word. “Sort, she needs to sort things out with family. I know she needs to do this but she was very nervous, it is hard to not worry when she is like that.” He stated as he grabbed the tablet out of Wanda’s hands before she even realized what he was doing.

Wanda gave a halfhearted glare when Pietro began flicking through the tablet but didn’t bother to take it back from him, with or without her powers. “Of course she is nervous and scared, she has not seen them since she was fifteen. That is many years to not see a mother or a sister, many things have changed for Norah and many things have changed for Norah’s mother and sister. Norah is no longer a teenager, she is not same girl they knew. It will take time for them to adjust to each other, to know how to act without…awkwardness.” She told and then playfully elbowed him in the side before taking the tablet back from him. “It is odd being on this end of things, seeing you worry over someone like this. I am used to it being me.” She said to him and then gave a chesire grin. “I may have to tell Norah of how you act. It is quite funny.” 

Responding to that Pietro stuck his tongue out at his twin, “Like you are not worried.” He stated, crossing his arms impatiently, wishing he could see or talk to Norah to be sure that she was all right seeing her family once again.

“Of course I am, I care for Norah. She is first true friend I have had in many, many years.” Wanda admitted as she looked away from her brother and stared blankly at the tablet in her hands.

Back in Sokovia there were a few friends that Wanda had been close with but that had been when she was much younger, she was not close to many of the other girls once she hit the age of ten. Yes, she has always had Pietro by her side but that was not the same thing as having a close friend, he was her brother and he loved her unconditionally. Wanda has secretly always hoped and dreamed to have a friendship with another girl, like those long lasting friendships that they seem to show in all those TV shows and chick flicks that are always on TV. That was the kind of friendship Wanda wanted and hoped she could have with Norah eventually; she wanted to sit around and eat junk food and watch TV, share personally things that no one else knew, she wanted someone to talk about everything and anything with, go and do girlie things like shopping, getting their hair and nails done. That is something that Pietro definitely could not join in and do – not without a lot of complaining at least. Sometimes, a very few times over the years Wanda had wished that Pietro had been born a girl instead. 

“And what am I? Chopped liver?” Pietro asked jokingly, but giving his sister a concerned look over how down she seemed to be at the moment. 

Wanda looked up at her brother and gave a soft smile, “No, you are my brother. You have always been there besides me, I am thankful for that and love you for that.” She said as she gently patted the side of his face in a sisterly fashion.

Pietro smiled at his sister and closed his blue eyes for a moment, “I will always be here for you.” He whispered to her. “Always.” 

At that Wanda smiled, “Yes, well you must learn to multi-task now, you have girlfriend.” She teased and stretched her neck before she set the tablet on the table in front of her and Pietro and stood up. “Now come, let’s go and see if there is anyone in common room. I know a lost cause when I see one, and you are a lost cause with being distracted with worry for Norah.” She said and then opened the doors of the library with her power and began to walk over to the doors.

“All right, fine, fine. You are pushy,” Pietro said to her as he reluctantly stood up from the couch he had been sitting on. “You know, I am thirteen minutes older than you.” He teased.

Wanda pushed him playfully as they walked down the hallway, “You can only use same line so many times, it is, how you say, getting old.” 

“You can say that, but it does not change you will always be younger.” Pietro said before he flung his sister over his shoulder and sped off in the direction of the kitchen/common room level.

~_~_~_~_~.~_~_~_~_~.~_~_~_~_~.~_~_~_~_~.~_~_~_~.~_~_~_~._~_~_~.~_~_~_~

Though Norah was nervous at first and completely terrified to see her sister and Ma again, and had no clue what she was supposed to talk to them about once they got over the emotional stuff that they all needed to get off their chests, she was finding talking to them once again was going much more smoothly than she had expected it to. The three of them were talking like they used to, before Norah had ran away from home and it was bittersweet to experience once again. 

Both her sister Niki and her Ma caught her up on things that have been going on in both of their lives; about Niki owning her own catering business which was quite successful in the twin cities area and some of the surrounding suburbs too, how Niki had gotten married to a man named David who did computers for a living to which Norah said he’d probably get along great with Tony. Niki told her about Aurora and how her pregnancy with her had gone, how she had damn near named Aurora after Eleanorah but decided to instead give her the middle name Rose after Norah instead – Norah nearly cried at that statement. Her mother had told her about things in her life as well, about how she has been dating someone for the last five years who does home renovations for a living, that his name was Samuel, she then told her about her extended family members and what has been going on in their lives and how everyone was doing and that they all demanded that they were going to have a family reunion sometime now that they know Norah is alive and well. 

Some of what Niki and her Ma had told her, Norah already knew because of the files that Tony had on her family but it was nice to hear what had been going on with them straight from the source rather than reading about it from a piece of paper. 

“I tried to find you,” Niki said to Norah out of the blue, interrupting the topic that they had just been talking about. “I tried to search for you, it was about a year or less after you…after you ran away but no matter how much searching I did and how much digging I did I wasn’t able to find you.” She said as she furrowed her brows, and gave her sister a sad look for failing in finding her. “I wanted…needed to find you, I wanted to find you and to tell you that it was okay that you were a Mutant. That I loved you and wanted you in my life still. But…well.”

Hearing those words made Norah’s eyes nearly water again but she was able to reign in her seemingly fluctuating emotions. Knowing that all those years ago that Niki had still wanted Norah in her life and had still loved her even though she was a Mutant, well, that was music to Norah’s ears and it almost made her wish that she would have headed back to Minnesota but at the same time the experiences that Norah had gone through have made her the person she is today and she wouldn’t trade it for the world. Even the bad parts. 

Norah looked at Niki and gave a small smile, “That means so much to me, you don’t even understand how much that means to me. I didn’t even know how you felt about me being a Mutant before I left, so thank you Niki, really, thank you for wanting to find me.” She told her and pulled her into a tight hug for what she had just revealed to her. 

“Why couldn’t I find you?” Niki asked as she pulled out of the hug that her younger sister had just given her. “I mean I get that one of your powers allows you to move from place to place easily but still, you were only fifteen years old. A fifteen year old runaway can’t hide that well.” She said, feigning annoyance at the fact that fifteen year old Norah was able to stay off of her radar.

Giggling a bit at the childish look that was on her older sister’s face, Norah replied. “I changed my last name when I arrived at Xavier’s Institute.” She said to them honestly and bluntly, okay she could have probably eased them into that bit of information a bit more slowly but she’d rather go about it as you would ripping off a Band-Aid.  
Changing your last name was a big deal, especially at the age of fifteen and Cheri was a bit disappointed that her youngest daughter had decided to do so once she had run away from home. A name is a big part of a person, it is something that signifies who they come from and who their ancestors were and the fact that Norah had changed her last name made Cheri shake her head and give her daughter a look for doing so. She knew that Norah and her father had never really had a chance to have a relationship, she knew that they had barely talked when Tom had his weekends with her and that there was a lot lacking when it came to Tom and fatherhood but she never thought that Norah would change her last name from the name of her father to something else entirely. Sullivan was the name she was born with and Cheri just didn’t believe in changing last names from that of your fathers and to something else, but then again Cheri was from a different generation and had no right to say anything on the subject.

“You changed your name?!” Niki exclaimed a bit shocked that Norah was able to do so at such a young age, and for the fact that she never took into consideration that her sister might have taken on a different name after the fiasco of her Mutant abilities coming to light. “To what?”

“Sjoholm,” Norah responded immediately. “I’m now known as Eleanorah Rosabelle Sjoholm.” She explained. “It’s actually one of our ancestors names, I found it when I was younger and looking through family history stuff. It was a name that stuck with me and so I took it as mine.” She said with a shrug of her shoulders.

Niki shook her head at herself when she heard that, “So no matter how much searching and digging I did, I would have never had a chance of finding you?” she questioned.

Norah gave a small laugh, “Basically.” She said with a shrug of her shoulders. “After everything that went down, after running away and making my way as far away from Minnesota as I possibly could get I just needed to change. I needed to change who I was, the person I was and I needed to change my name. I wanted to reinvent myself to be the person that I wanted to be. A Mutant. A strong Mutant who wasn’t afraid of the fact that she was different.” She said grinning proudly and looked sideways at her mother and knew that her mother was not happy with this new bit of information but knew that her mother wouldn’t say anything on the subject either, thankfully. “Even if I had kept Sullivan you wouldn’t have been able to find me because of Xavier’s. They are very protective of their students and will do everything in their power to insure that their identities do not get out, to make sure that they are safe and secure from anyone who may be hateful towards us because we are Mutants.” 

It was terrifying for Niki to realize, to actually realize, that there were people out there in the world who hated what her baby sister was so much that they would not hesitate to kill her and other people like her. Sure, there have been hate groups in the world as long as there have been human beings but you’d think in the modern world that people would not hate nearly as much as they do, but sadly racism is still out there in the world and probably always will be. All they can do is hope someday people would get over the fact that there are Mutants in the world.   
Cheri knew that she had been gullible back when she had first found out about Norah being a Mutant, believing what the media said about them being dangerous and needing to be kept in check. She realized years later that it was very similar to what Hitler had done to the Jewish people, what the white people had done to the Native Americans and so on and so forth. It was unfair of her to judge based on a few opinions in the news. She could not believe how strong her daughter was, how much stronger she was than anything that Cheri has ever imagined for her to be. She was proud of Norah, so proud of her for how strong she has had to be over the years and how strong she was for being able to take all the hate that Mutants get.

“I want you to meet my family,” Niki said to Norah as broke the comfortable silence that had settled between all of them once Norah had explained that she had changed her last name. “My husband David and my daughter Aurora, we call her Rora though. She’s been begging and pleading to see you since we told her we were coming here to meet you.” Niki said, a slight blush on her cheeks. “I’ve told her about you over the years. About your stubbornness, that you’re a Mutant and how much you loved Otters.” She said and then suddenly looked at Norah wide eyed. “You still like otters, don’t you?” she asked her with a tone of concern, as if she thought that something was wrong with Norah if she answered that she didn’t like otters anymore. 

“Of course I do!” Norah exclaimed, a laugh on her lips as she shook her head at her sister. “Otters are amazing.” She told her.

“Good,” Niki said. “I was scared for a moment that you might have changed so much that you no longer liked them.” She said and then shook her head. “Stupid idea really.” 

Cher sat on the couch and watched her two daughters interact and banter with one and another and shook her head, no matter how old they were it seemed that they would always end up acting a bit childish. She supposed they deserved to do that once in a while, Tom was not really that much of a parent and didn’t look after them much when she had been working.

Slapping at her legs, Norah stood up and then grinned down at her sister and then at her ma. “Well, come on. Let’s go meet the rest of my family.” She said with a face splitting grin on her face, happy that her and her family had talked and worked things out and were now on the road to rebuilding the relationship that they had once had. 

Niki stood up, “How are we supposed to find them, this place is humongous.” She said as she gestured around to her. “I mean I’m sure you know it pretty well, living here and everything but it’s still pretty massive.” She said to her.

At that Norah smirked, “Did you forget about the A.I. already Nic, come on.” She said with a playful roll of her eyes and then looked towards the ceiling. “Friday?” she questioned.

“Yes, Ms. Norah?” the voice of Friday said throughout the room. “What can I do for you?” she asked.

“Can you tell me where my sister’s husband and daughter are right now?” Norah asked politely, it may be an A.I. but the thing still had feelings, at least with how Tony made it the thing did. 

“Mr. Paaverud and Little Paaverud are in the kitchen with Pietro, Wanda and Thor.” Friday answered without a moment’s hesitation. “Is there anything else I can do for you Ms. Norah?” 

Norah shook her head at that, “No, thank you Friday. Tell Tony you need a day off.” She quipped to the A.I.  
“I am an A.I. Ms. Norah. I do not get days off.” Friday responded.

Hearing that Norah gave a sigh, “Jarvis was more fun to joke around with than you are Friday, you disappoint me.” She said with a shake of her head.

“I am sorry to hear that Ms. Norah.” Friday responded. 

Cheri looked at her daughter and gave an amused smile, “You know you are talking to artificial intelligence, right?” she questioned her.

“Yes, yes I do.” Norah responded before she linked each of her arms through her mother and sister’s before leading the way out of the lounge, down the stairs and to the closest elevator so that they could make their way to the kitchen/common room level.

Norah was excited about meeting her brother-in-law and niece, but she was also impatient on seeing Pietro again. After the emotionally exhausting conversation that she just had with her Ma and sister for who knows how long she needs a bit of his support and to just decompress so to say after all of that talking and heart to heart that she just had. Maybe Norah was still in the new relationship lovey dovey phase of her and Pietro’s relationship but she truly felt better when she was near him, he didn’t have to say anything really but just being near him and being able to do something as simple as touching is hand or face just helped her calm down and just be for a few moments.

“Pietro! Wanda! Thor!” Norah called out as she led her mother and sister down the hallway and into the common room/Kitchen level where the Avengers and friends spent a good deal of their time when not in their rooms or in the training area or out in the city exploring. “Are you guys here?!” she yelled out once again as her mother and sister followed right behind her and further into the common room level that they barely had a chance to see before Pepper had whisked them off to meet up with Norah in a random lounge in the tower. 

“Lady Norah, the brave! And her family!” Thor greeted loudly from the kitchen island where he was seated with who Norah assumed was her brother-in-law David and her niece Rora, as well as Wanda and Pietro was – 

Before Norah had a chance to finish that train of thought there was a sudden blur heading straight for Norah, and within seconds Pietro was suddenly in front of her with a playful smirk on his face. Not even hesitating or caring that they had an audience, Pietro leant down to reach Norah’s shorter stature and placed a light kiss upon Norah’s lips before pulling away. 

“Everything is well Moj mali bik?” Pietro questioned as he looked down into her dark colored eyes, a look of concern and care in his eyes.

At that Norah gave a soft smile and gave a small nod, “Yes Pietro, everything is okay.” She said, a happy smile on her face as she looked at Pietro and then behind her at her mother and sister who both had gaping mouths while looking at Pietro. “Ma, Niki. You’ll catch flies if you keep on hanging your mouth open like that.” She said as she pushed her sister’s mouth shut. 

Shaking her head, Niki looked at Pietro and over towards where he had been standing halfway across the room not even moments before and then looked to Norah and then at Pietro again. “How..how did you do that? Are you a Mutant too?” she questioned. “I just, that, that was awesome!” she said, her mind finally seeming to catch up with what just happened.

“Something like that.” Pietro responded and then smirked down at Norah who gave a snort of amusement when he said that, words that she had said to him not but weeks before. “I am able to move very, very fast.” He explained as he looked from Norah’s sister and then to her sister.

Studying the two for a moment Pietro was only able to see that Norah shared eye shape and color with her mother and maybe few facial characteristics that made it seem that Norah and Niki were related in some way but otherwise Norah did not look much like her mother or sister. In fact, they seemed to look quite opposite, or at least in Pietro’s opinion they did.

“Norah,” Cheri said speaking up and looking at her daughter curiously, and smiled a bit when she saw her granddaughter looking at Norah excitedly, impatiently waiting for them to come over and introduce her to her. “Who is this?” she asked politely.

Smiling widely at her mother and sister Norah clasped her hand with Pietro’s and stepped a bit closer to him, “Ma, Niki this is my boyfriend Pietro Maximoff. Pietro this is my mother Cheri, and my older sister Niki.” She introduced.

Pietro smiled at them, “It is pleasure to meet you, Norah has told many things of you both. Good things.” He said with his heavy Sokovian accent, something which Norah found incredibly attractive. 

“Hello,” Cheri said and then studied him and Norah for a moment and was about to ask a questioned before her eldest daughter broke the silence. 

“It’s great to meet you and everything but no offense but I kinda want to introduce my sister to my family.” Niki said to Pietro who just laughed at her bluntness. “So, come on Norah.” She said as she grabbed her younger sister by the arm and basically dragged her over to the kitchen island which looked much smaller than it was because of Thor’s massive form standing in front of it. 

Norah looked over her shoulder at Pietro who was walking with her mother towards the kitchen island and gave him an amused smile and shrugged before she mothed ‘sisters’ to him and then turned back around and followed Niki to the kitchen island.

“Norah,” Niki said excitedly once they reached the kitchen that seemed to be halfway across the room. “This is my husband David,” she said and pointed at a rather skinny and not too terribly tall man who was pale with just a bit of blonde colored hair atop his head and a bit of blonde facial hair growing on his chin. “And this leopard print wearing six year old is my daughter Aurora, ‘Rora’ who has been waiting to meet you for a long time.” 

At that the medium brown haired girl who had straight hair just like her mother gave a whine, “Mom!” she said in embarrassment.

Niki gave her a look, “What? It’s true.” She said to her.

All Norah did was smile, “Well, it’s nice to meet both of you.” She said as she leaned up against the counter of the kitchen island.

“Yes!” Thor said loudly, his voice almost reverberating against the walls of the level they were on. “It has been wonderful to have the honor of meeting the brave Norah’s family, I feel honored to meet you all and can only assume you all are just as brave as she. There are tales to-“

Before Thor could go off on a tangent Norah interrupted him, “Thor,” she intoned, gaining the Norse God’s attention. “Not every event needs to have tales told, I think it’s safe to say that this is not one of those moments. Thanks for….the whole wanting to tell tales about this, but I think we should leave tale telling for battles. Yeah?” she asked him.

At that Thor got a sad, disheartened look on his face, almost as if he was a puppy dog who just got kicked but he nodded nonetheless. “Yes, I suppose I may agree with you.” He said to her. “I will leave you now to reconnect with your kin, I will go in search of Steve. I heard talk of a deep fried bird by some army man. I wish to know more and consume it.” He remarked before taking his leave.

Norah just shook her head at him and then looked at her family, “God’s, I tell you.” She said to them jokingly. “Well this is my boyfriend Pietro as I said, and his twin sister Wanda.” She said as she gestured towards Wanda who was standing near the fridge at the moment and gave a little wave to Norah’s family. 

It was amazing to have family, blood family, to talk to once again. Norah of course thought of all of the Avenges as family and nothing would change that but being able to talk to her mother and sister again was wonderful and now she has gained two new family members – a brother in law and a niece. And it was just a wonderful feeling.

“So,” Niki said with a shit eating grin on her face as she looked between Norah and Pietro. “How’d you two meet, how long have you been dating?” she asked curiously and waggled her eyebrows at the two teasingly, she was making up for lost time that she hasn’t been able to tease her sister. 

When Niki had asked that Norah glanced at Pietro for a moment with wide, panicked eyes, unsure of what to say but quickly managed to stutter out an answer. “Uh, we..we met in Sokovia, while trying to fight Ultron.” She said a bit uncertain and then gave a sidelong glance to Pietro with a hesitant smile and a barely noticeable shrug, silently telling him that she had no idea how to answer that.

Pietro looked back at her with a shrug and then reached down and squeezed her hand, silently communicating that he had no idea how to tell them that he had originally been on Ultron’s side till the day or so before they defeated him. It’s not exactly something you bring up in casual conversation. 

“How long have you two been dating?” Niki asked again, looking at them as if they were the most exciting thing since sliced bread. 

It was Pietro who answered this time, “It has been few weeks we’ve been together, since she woke from her a coma.” He answered as he smiled down at Norah softly; it was obvious for everyone to see that he cared deeply for Norah. 

They were all making a bit of small talk in the kitchen when Rora suddenly gasped loudly and looked at Norah for a moment before looking at her mother and running over to her and tugging her down to her level and whispering in her ear, Niki nodded and then got off of the stool she was sitting on before heading for the couch where there was a small bag which they rummaged through for a few moments. 

They all watched curiously as Rora took something out of the bag and then quickly hid it behind her back before she approached Norah who was watching her with a furrowed brow, wondering what exactly her newly found niece was doing. “Auntie Norah,” Rora said as she looked up at her aunt. “I made this for you, Mom said that you really, really, really, really liked otters.” She said and then awkwardly shoved a deep blue colored piece of paper at Norah.   
Smiling, Norah took the piece of construction paper and opened it up as Pietro looked over her shoulder. Not able to help the grin that spread across her face, Norah looked down at the blue paper and saw brown colored construction paper cut out into the shape of an otter and it was a very well done job too at that, it looked like an otter than a somewhat shape of one like she had expected to possibly see. There were even a few cut outs and marker drawings of fish and rocks in the water. 

“I love it!” Norah said before she bent down and drew her niece into a tight hug. “Thank you so much, I really, really love it. I’ve never been all that good at drawing otters or even stick figures. I mean, whenever I try to draw otters it comes out looking like a mix between a really sad looking dog and a snake.” She said with a sad shake of her head which earned a laugh from Rora, her sister, Pietro and Wanda. “Shut up.” She hissed, directing the comment at Pietro and hit him lightly in the stomach. “Drawing isn’t my strongest suit, okay.” She defended herself as she crossed her arms.

“Come Moj mali bik, I did not mean to insult.” Pietro said as he kissed the top of her head. 

Norah rolled her eyes, “You’re lucky I like you.” She stated and lightly bumped her hip against his.

Cheri watched as Norah interacted with her boyfriend, Pietro, and gave a soft smile. It was nice to see her daughter happy, confident, content and at ease with herself and she was happy to see that Norah was with someone and that they looked at her like Pietro was looking at her just moments ago. From how the two looked at one and another Cheri could have sworn that they have been together for years rather than less than a month. It was beautiful to see that there was still love, genuine love in the world. 

“So,” Nora said as she looked down at Rora before she turned to look at her family and Pietro and Wanda once again. “Who’s thirsty? I’m craving hot chocolate, do you like hot chocolate Rora?” she questioned. 

Rora nodded her head widely, “YEAH!” she almost screamed happily. 

Pietro looked at Rora and grinned, “Tony keeps a stash of hot chocolate, many kind of hot chocolate, he say is for Norah but really is for him.” He stage whispered making her give an adorable giggle. 

Looking up at the strange man who could run faster than Rora’s eyes could keep up with she gave him a funny look, “You talk silly.” She said to him.

Before Pietro was able to answer Wanda came up and smiled at Rora, “Yes, it is because we are not from this country. We are from Eastern Europe. Do you know where that is?” she questioned curiously as she cocked her head to the side and looked into Rora’s stormy blue colored eyes.

Rora thought for a moment, she thought long and hard on the question that Wanda gave her but eventually shook her head. “Nope. Where is it?” she asked, wanting to know. 

“It is across ocean, I will sow you on map. That sound good?” Wanda asked. 

Rora nodded at Wanda before she went over to her newly found aunt who was getting things out of the cupboard to make hot chocolate, now that Rora was finally able to meet her long lost aunt that her mom had talked about all the time she wanted to spend as much time with her as she possibly could. Hopefully every waking hour, or at least that’s what Rora hoped for but was doubtful that she would spend that much time with her. It’s a tad bit excessive. 

They all continued to make small talk and getting to know each other a bit where there was some loud noises coming from the elevator, hearing the familiar voice of Tony made Norah sigh and wonder what exactly he’s up to now.

“You can all stop worrying, I’ve arrived finally!” Tony exclaimed full of himself, his arms as well as Thor’s and Steve’s ladened with bags of food with a familiar colonel on the front of it. “The party can start now.”

Thor gave a boyish grin, “We have brought food from the army Colonel. I have on good authority that this is, as Darcy said ‘totes, best friend chicken’ I do not understand what that all meant but I understand it is very good to consume.” 

“Friday!” Tony screamed suddenly. “Call Clint, Natasha and Pepper to the floor so they can join us.” He said as he unceremoniously plopped the bags of food onto the Kitchen Island. “Otherwise feeding days is once every other day and I only feed assassins so many times a month otherwise people start to talk.” 

Norah shook her head at his antics and then looked at her mother, sister and brother in law. “Welcome to my crazy family.” She said with a grand gesture.


	32. Chapter 32

Chapter thirty-one

**She was running, running as fast as she could away from Ultron and his metal robot army who was trying to kill her. She looked around frantically for signs of her friends and family but there was no sign of them anywhere, so instead Norah kept on running as if her life depended on it which it might. She could feel blood on her bare feet, seeping between her toes, she felt blood on her hands but instead of looking at them she kept on running, kept on pushing herself to run faster and faster. Behind her she heard the clanking noises of Ultron coming after her, he could have jumped and/or flown to where she was but he wanted to torture her, to mess with her mind by letting her think that she had a head start when really she had no chance whatsoever.**

**“Tony! Pietro! Natasha!” Norah yelled out into the familiar Sokovian woods that she was surrounded by. “Please!” she screamed desperately, hoping against hope that one of them would hear her pleas and come to her rescue, that they could come and help her.**

**“No one is here to help you.” Ultron cackled from behind her, making Norah push herself just that much harder.**

**Behind her there was the sound of gun shots, blood curdling screams and instead of looking behind her to see what going on, to see who was making those noises Norah blocked them from her mind and continued on running and doing her damndest to put as much distance between herself and Ultron as she possibly could. Norah didn’t want to die, especially like this. Running. If she was going to die she’d rather die fighting for her life instead of running away scared out of her mind. Norah turned her head for a moment to see how far ahead of Ultron she was but she didn’t see him behind her any longer but she could still hear him chasing her, so she turned back around to watch where she was running but when she did she stopped stock still.**

**There in front of her were Wanda, Pietro, Steve, Natasha and Clint, severely injured and her mother, sister and Tony were laying on the ground dead. “No, no, no, no, no.” Norah said with wide eyes as she ran over towards her mother, sister and Tony and patted at their faces desperately, hoping and praying that they were just unconscious and not dead. “C’mon, please, please don’t be dead. Please.” She begged them as she hugged her mother and sister to her and then moved to Tony and hit him upside the head, hoping it would wake him up from his ‘sleep’ that she was pretending he was in. “Tony, no, please Tony wake up, wake up. You need to wake up…okay, you need to be alive. I can’t. I just-“ she said cutting herself off and pressing her forehead against Tony’s as tears made their way down her face.**

**“Norah, you could have saved them, saved us.” Clint said from over by the others. “You didn’t try hard enough, you’ve never been good enough.” He said to her.**

**At that Norah got up and rushed over towards them, “What?! No, I did save you. I saved you Clint and Pietro.” She said to him.**

**“If you saved us why are we like this?” Pietro questioned as he gestured to his side where a big chunk was missing and blood was streaming out steadily, something he definitely would not have survived.**

**“Yes Norah-“ Natasha began but before she was able to say much of anything Norah turned tail and ran away from her dead family and from her horribly injured friends who were accusing her of not saving them.**

**Norah ran and ran and then ran some more, she couldn’t take it and couldn’t comprehend what was going on. She needed to get as far away as humanly possible, she tried to use her Blinking but no matter how hard she tried nothing happened. She didn’t Blink to another place, it’s like suddenly her power was turned off. Ducking under some tree’s Norah continued running and swung herself over a rather large fallen tree but once she had done that she came face to face with someone who was ten times worse than Ultron in her book.**

**The man who had hurt her in St. Louis when she was fifteen. “Hello Norah, would you like-“ And with a large gasp Norah sat straight up and woke from the nightmare that she had just been having, filled with things she would rather not have to think about or remember.**

Blinking her eyes a few times, Norah reached over towards her night stand and took out a pair of glasses and slid them onto her face before she pulled her knees up to her chest, settled her elbows on top of them and grasped at her hair. She really did need to take care of these nightmares that she kept on having but Norah knew that meant talking about them and she would rather not talk about them or talk about what has happened to her in her past, she just wanted to forget about the things that have happened to her.

Especially the incident in St. Louis. “Jesus Christ, don’t think about him Norah. Do not. He cannot rule your every thought; he cannot rule your life or scare you anymore.” Norah said to herself, referring to the man who had assaulted her in St. Louis.

Norah would rather take on one hundred Ultron’s rather than that man who had attacked her in St. Louis. It’s been quite a few years since that had happened but it still affected her, it was still in the back of her mind no matter how much she tried to forget about it and it will always be a part of her and her life experiences. Shaking her head to try and shake the memories away, Norah gave a great big sigh and pushed the covers off of her green colored yoga pants clad legs and grabbed a black zip up hoodie that was thrown over a chair and then slowly made her way out of her bedroom and to the closest elevator.

After that hellish nightmare there was no way that she was going to be going back to sleep for a while, though she wasn’t fond of being up at three am in the morning but Norah figured she could attempt to get a nap in later on in the day. So seeing as it was way too early for most people to be awake at this time of morning Norah made her way to the common room/kitchen area, maybe a cup of tea, some food and a bit of late night TV will make her feel better and help her keep her mind off of the nightmare that she had. As the elevator that shew as on stopped and the doors opened, Norah walked out of it and saw that there was light streaming into the hallway from the common room, meaning someone else was awake and Norah would bet anything that it was more than likely Tony.

Tony’s mind worked 24/7 and mixed with his mad genius tendencies and his somewhat insomnia made it so that he was up at really weird and unusual hours. “You know,” Norah said making Tony jump from his spot on the couch, nearly dropping the tablet that was in his hands. “Pepper is going to kick your ass one of these days, taking short naps in your labs and in the living room does not count as sleep Tony.” She pointed out to him as she walked past the couch he was on and towards the kitchen so that she could make herself some tea to drink, opting for a mixed blend of herbal and black tea.

Tony looked at Norah and shook his head at her, “How are you able to do that without your power, seriously kid. I’m not that young anymore, make some noise when you come into a room or something.” He said to her as he peered over the back of the couch and watched her.

Hearing that Norah gave a devilish smirk, “You know I can’t help myself.” She responded before turning her back to him and taking out the things she needed for her tea while waiting for her tea kettle to boil.

Watching Norah from the awkward position he turned his head in Tony looked at her in concern, she had bags underneath her eyes, she looked dead tired yet was awake at three something in the morning and was continuously rapping her fingers against the counter which were signs that something was definitely wrong with her. He’s known Norah long enough to know when she was plain old tired – he remembered the numerous late night study sessions – and when there was something seriously wrong with her like there was right now and he could only assume that Norah was awake right now because of a nightmare. What Norah needed to do was talk to someone again like she used to do, before he had met her, she’s made off hand comments about going to a therapist for a while after she arrived at Xavier’s but hasn’t said much else otherwise.

Tony wasn’t one to talk about his feelings really especially therapist but Norah needed it, hell most of the Avengers would do good talking to a therapist. “Norah,” Tony said as Norah approached the couch he was on and sat beside him as she took a sip of the tea she made for herself. “You should be sleeping; only crazy mad geniuses like me are up at this ungodly hour.” He said and gently nudged her. “Go and get some sleep.” He said to her.

At that Norah shook her head, “No, I’m fine.” She said stubbornly and looked at his tablet and saw a few tabs open, one that looked like some sort of mathematical algorithm and the other looked like a search for wherever Bruce may be. “I don’t want to sleep right now, I had a nightmare and I just need to be up for a while.” She admitted to him tightly.

“Norah you can’t keep everything in.” Tony said to her, sounding very parental at the moment, it was mildly terrifying when he did that once in a while. “You need to talk about the things that are going up in this weird mind of yours,” he said as he lightly tapped her on the side of the head. “You need to get stuff out so that you don’t keep on having nightmares. You went through a lot, you nearly died and that’s not something you can just brush off.” He said to her.

Norah huffed at that and took a rather big gulp of her tea before she stretched out on the couch and laid her head against one of Tony’s jean clad thighs, using it as a makeshift pillow so to say. “I know.” She said somberly. “I know I do but right now, right at this exact moment isn’t the time Tony.” She said as she looked up at him pleadingly and silently begged him to change the subject, to talk about anything else but what they were at the moment.

“All right.” Tony conceded and gently patted Norah’s curly hair. “We don’t have to talk about that.” He said to her gently, lovingly caressing her cheek before returning his hand back to her hair. “How about we talk about how I talked to your sad excuse of a father.” He said, a smirk on his face.

Hearing that Norah turned her head and looked at Tony with wide eyes, a slow smile spreading across her face at that. “No. No way. Don’t tell me I missed the confrontation!” she exclaimed, a disappointed look on her face at missing her chosen father and her birth father facing off with one and another.

Tony grinned back at her, “’Fraid so kid. Sorry. I would have waited but you were doing the whole reuniting with your mother and sister thing, figured it’d be kinda rude to interrupt that. Or so says Pepper. And Steve. And Clint. Everyone really.” He said with a sigh.

“What happened, did he act like an ass to you, did he drink all of your alcohol up? Come on, tell me the juicy details!” Norah said, acting way too excited about Tony talking to her birth father. She may or may not be hoping that they got into a fight, depending on how drunk her birth father was Tony would have been able to take him and have him on his ass in two seconds flat.

Tony shook his head at Norah, “He did drink from my alcohol collection and didn’t even ask first, rude.” He said with a playful roll of his eyes and crossing his arms, sounding very much like a teenage girl which was more than likely what he was aiming for. “He was not happy at not being able to see you but me, Thor and Steve didn’t let him go and follow your mother and sister. I tried to contain myself and be nice like Pepper asked me to but I can only do so much, I may have went off on him and told him what I thought of him and maybe called him your sperm donor rather than your father and said that I was your father as far as you were concerned.”

When he said that Norah looked up at Tony and gave a soft smile; she did love hearing him refer to himself as her father and the fact that he defended her and kept her ‘father’ from following after her mother and sister made it just that much better. Tony’s the best as far as she cared. After that Norah kept her head on Tony’s thigh and watched some bad TV for a while whilst Tony read things on his tablet and tapped at the screen continuously and mumbled to himself about some sort of science and math stuff, none of which Norah understood so she just blocked him out.

“Norah,” Tony said as he looked down at her once again and saw her blinking her eyes, trying to stay awake. “I think you should get some sleep now Blinker. Don’t you think.” He suggested.

“Then read to me, whatever you are mumbling about on your tablet. Read that to me.” Norah said as she stayed where she was. “I’m sure I’ll be put to sleep within moments. It sounds boring from what I’ve heard so far.” She teased to him to which Tony repaid her by pinching her side making her squeal a bit.

Nonetheless Tony began to read the science and math shit, as Norah liked to lovingly call it, talking about a new invention he was doing research for and considering creating. But just as Norah had said, the science and math talk had put her to sleep almost instantly which made Tony smile a bit and then return to his tablet to do a bit more research and work out some equation’s to try once he was in the developing part of the invention.

~_~_~_~_~_~_~.~_~_~_~_~_~_~._~_~_~_~_~_~_~._~_~_~_~.~_~_~_~_~_.~_

It was a few hours later when Tony suddenly blinked his eyes open (he swore that he only closed them for a moment) and smelt the strong scent of his Costa Rican coffee, and not the cheap shit either. Blearily closing and opening his eyes a few time to adjust to the brightness of the light that was shining in through the large floor to ceiling windows, he cracked his neck before looking down at his lap where Norah was still sound asleep and then gave as tart when he saw Norah’s mother sitting at the other end of the couch. She was just sitting there quietly, two cups in hand while staring at him and Norah intently. A bit creepy, even for his tastes. “Uh, hi.” Tony said a bit awkwardly as he slowly sat up somewhat straighter, something that was a bit complicating considering Norah was using him as a pillow.

“Hi.” Cheri said with an unreadable expression on her face and then handed him a cup of coffee before taking her own in her hands. “I made coffee, hope you don’t mind.” She said to him before she looked down at Norah with a gentle yet pained expression on her face.

Tony took a sip of his coffee and nodded at Cheri, “Thanks,” he told her and then sat in awkward silence for a while.

This was a weird situation for Tony to be in, usually he could be quite charming and could B.S. his way through a conversation he didn’t really want to have if he wanted to but this was different. This was Norah’s mother that he was dealing with at the moment, the woman who was the birth mother of his adopted daughter and he didn’t have a damn clue what to say or what to do really. It was weird, awkward and uncomfortable all rolled into one. This was the first time that Tony has really talked to the woman, he had called Norah’s older sister when he had decided to let her family know about Norah’s injuries and when he had invited them to New York to see Norah again after being separated from her for however many years it’s been. So, yeah, this was an all-around weird situation for Tony to be in at the moment.

“Thank you.” Cheri said suddenly to Tony, breaking him out of his thoughts about how weird and odd the situation was at the moment. “Thank you, Tony, for taking my daughter in when you didn’t have to. Thank you for accepting her as she was, Mutant and all. Thank you for caring for her and….and loving her like a parent even though you didn’t have to.” She said as she looked down at her sleeping daughter’s face with a soft smile before looking up at Tony.

At that Tony gave a flippant shrug, he may like being the center of attention but not in this sort of context. “With her sarcastic attitude it was hard to not like the kid and to take her in, I’ve never really wanted kids but when Norah unexpectedly came along, well, I made an exception for her. She’s a damn hellion at times but she keeps me on my toes and can give as good as she gets.” He said with an amused smirk on his face as he turned from Cheri and instead looked down at Norah as he moved some of her wild curls out of her face. “She made me realize that I was missing something. Having a kid in your life is an amazing experience, I’m not planning on having kids whatsoever, Norah is enough for me to tell the truth. But she made me see things differently; she relied and depended on me, trusted me like no one else and when things were going bad she would come to me. I’ve never really experienced something like that before.” He said with a small smile on his face. “I really do love her like she’s my own.”

Seeing Tony Stark look at her daughter in such a loving and fatherly way hurt Cheri’s heart, it wasn’t because she was jealous or anything like that, because she wasn’t. In fact, she was more than glad that her daughter had a father figure in her life, even if it was a few years late. It hurt because Cheri wished to god that Norah could have had a father figure from the start – both her and Niki – instead she got Tom who barely remembered that he had kids, let alone did anything with them that would be considered parental. Tom had acted like a father was supposed to at one point in time, for the first ten or so years of being a father which Niki got to experience but sadly Norah did not. A few years after Norah was born things with Tom’s alcoholism started to go downhill and he never was the same again. It’s sad to think that it took almost twenty years for Norah to find someone who treated her like a father was supposed to.

“She’s not the same Norah anymore.” Cheri said offhand, a wistful look playing across her face. “She was quiet, shy for the most part, and barely spoke her mind then unless she was being particularly stubborn.” She said with a small laugh.

Tony wanted to say something, anything to comfort the woman who created the fierce person that Norah was but he didn’t have any clue how to go about doing that. He couldn’t refute what she was saying to try and make her feel better; Norah was definitely not the same person she was when Cheri had last seen her. Norah was no longer a fifteen year old girl stuck in the goth phase of her teenage years, she wasn’t the shy and introverted person that she had been back then and she wasn’t the sort of person that would take shit from anyone. Be it Fury, Tony, Ultron or her family.

Cheri gave a heavy sigh at how much she had missed out on because of a simple-minded view that she had held, “I was wrong. I know that now, I knew that five years ago, hell I knew that only a year or two after Norah had ran away. There’s nothing wrong with Mutants or being a Mutant. It’s something a person can’t change about themselves so who am I to judge. It’s the same as hating someone based on the color of their skin or their religious views and I did just that to Norah when she was only fifteen years old because of things I saw in the news.” She said and pursed her lips together, hating herself for what she did to her youngest daughter and for the fact that in a roundabout way she broke her family a part. “I missed out on so much because I decided Mutants were bad.”

Tony took a sip of his coffee and looked at Cheri and wondered how it ended up that he was the one that shew as pouring her heart to, he understood that she felt bad about how she acted and that she hated herself for missing out on almost eight years of her daughter’s life but why, why god was he the one that she decided to tell all of her inner feelings to. He loved Norah obviously, he loved her so much that he called her birth family and invited them to New York but he was definitely not on the level of having a heart to heart with them. He hasn’t even known them a day yet and the only one he’s really had a conversation with before now was Tom and that was not exactly to most pleasant of conversations, there was a lot of yelling and insults involved. But because he loved and cared for Norah (and because Pepper would kill him), Tony sat there and listened to Cheri and did his best to attempt to comfort/make her feel better. He definitely was not trained to deal with this sort of shit from random people.

“I missed out on her growing up and becoming a wonderful woman from what I can tell so far, I missed out on her graduating from high school early, from graduating from college with two degrees. I never got to see her go on her first date, her first break up or any of those things and it was all because I was stupid and judgmental when I found out about Norah’s powers. God, it hurts so much to realize that I don’t know my own daughter. I am a horrible mother, Niki tried to convince me otherwise but what parent makes their daughter feel as if the only choice they have is to run away? What parent lets their child feel unloved and hated?” she asked rhetorically.

Tony rubbed at his face, it was too damn early for these sort of conversations. “Look, I don’t know you so I can’t really say much on you being or not being a horrible mother. I kinda hated you for a while when Norah told me about how she ended up being on her own before she ended up at Xavier’s. I won’t lie, it’s not really my thing. I’m more so of being brutally honest and insulting someone straight to their face type.” He said with a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders, it was the truth and who was he to start lying about the sort of person he was now. It’s a tad late for that. “Once I got to know Norah, like really got to know her it made me angry at you for what you said and for what you thought of her. Yeah, she’s a bit different but everyone’s a bit different – Mutants and Humans alike. I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that you, as her mother, wanted to fix her of being a ‘Mutant’, that you basically wanted her to be experimented on by a doctor just so that she wouldn’t have her powers anymore.” He said and then paused for a moment.

Tony needed a moment to gather his thoughts before he continued on his little tirade. “I dug into Norah’s past, found everything I could on you, on your husband, on Norah herself and on your sad excuse of an ex-husband. I found all the gritty details about your lives to try and explain why you would do that to your own daughter but for the life of me nothing explained what you did. Not one thing.” Tony said with a disappointed shake of his head and then turned to look at Cheri intently, trying to dissect her with his eyes. “When I met her I could tell she’s been through a bit, that she wasn’t exactly an innocent twenty year old kid who was trying their hand at being an adult. Norah is an amazing girl….woman, she’s fierce, strong, independent, stubborn as a mule, loyal and speaks her mind. I only hope that you take the chance that’s been given to you and get to know Norah, Mutant and all.”

It was hard for Cheri to hear all of that, to hear that Norah had been through something that affected her so much that Tony was able to see it within moments of meeting her. It also didn’t surprise Cheri when Tony admitted that he had hated her when he had first heard the story of how Norah ended up by herself without any family to call on, if Cheri was in his shoes she would be feeling the exact same thing. Cheri had no excuse for how she had reacted to finding out that Norah was a Mutant, but she would do her damndest to make up for her mistake. “I plan on it.” Cheri told him determinedly as she looked him straight in the eye, a dead serious look on her face when she spoke those words to him.

~_~_~_~_~_~_~ Norah : Medical Wing ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

This was the day that Norah has been waiting for since she woke up from her medically induced a coma, the day that she would be told whether or not if she could use her powers freely once again or if she needed to wait two more weeks before doing so. Cho had flown back in from Seoul to do the checkup, at the rather annoying insistence of Tony who said that Norah deserved only the best and Cho was the best. Norah wanted to use her powers weeks ago but the others had banned her from it and had kept a close watch on her to insure that she didn’t break the order placed on her of not using them until she was medically cleared. Something which Norah pouted about quite obviously in front of everyone, just to make sure they knew how annoyed and put out she felt about the current predicament.

“Norah calm down.” Cheri said from a chair in the medical room that Cho had led Norah, Niki and her mother to so that Norah could get her injuries checked out and will hopefully be given a clean bill of health. “Pacing around won’t make her come back here any faster.” She said to her youngest daughter with an amused smile on her face.

At that Norah rocked back and forth on her feet impatiently, “I am calm.” She said unconvincingly and crossed her arms under her chest, hating that she had to wait for Cho to come back before finding out if she could take up her old routine once again and be able to use her powers again, she hated not being able to use her powers.

“Sure you are,” Niki said with a raised brow. “About as calm as a cat covered in catnip.” She said to her sarcastically.

In response to that Norah made a face at her older sister and stuck her tongue out at her, “Oh, ha, ha. Aren’t you hilarious.” She said to her with a half-hearted snide remark.

Niki stuck her tongue back out at Norah, “Nughhh.”

Looking between her daughter’s Cheri shook her head, really, she swore that she had attempted to raise them to be polite young ladies rather than the childish twenty-something and thirty-something that they two of them were acting like at the moment. She was positive that she didn’t teach them to stick their tongue’s out at one and another childishly either, that was definitely not one of her teachings. Thankfully before either Niki or Norah could continue bantering with one and another the door to the Medical room opened and in walked Cho who was holding a clipboard and an odd looking device in her hand, smiling she set her things down on a table before she greeted Norah and her family.

“Hello Norah, how are you doing? You’re looking much better than a few weeks ago.” Cho said as she went over to the sink in the room and washed her hands and put gloves on so that she could do an exam of Norah’s heling injuries that were hopefully, at this point, all healed up.

“I’m good, I’m doing real good.” Norah responded as she watched Cho go through the motions of getting ready for looking her over. “Ready to get off of the ‘no using powers’ restriction though.” She said to her pointedly, a slight frown on her face.

At that Cho gave a small laugh at that, “I am sure you are, it has been almost a month since the incident happened.” She said to her and then looked to Cheri and Niki. “I am to assume that you are the family members that Tony had called when Norah was injured. Her mother and sister?” she questioned curiously.

Cheri nodded at that, “I’m Cheri, and this is my oldest Niki.” She said introducing herself and her daughter to the Korean doctor. “You’re the one who saved my daughter?” she questioned while looking at Cho as if she was some sort of heavenly creature who had been sent down to Earth to save her daughter for some greater good.

At that Cho gave a humbled laugh, “I’m not exactly the one who saved her, there were three doctors who had worked on her before myself and my team got our hands on her. Considering the distressing circumstances that they were in at the time, they did a beautiful job saving her life. If there hadn’t been a medical team onsite your daughter most definitely would have bled out and died.” She said in a serious tone of voice as she looked at Cheri and then at Norah. “I do hope that you don’t plan on jumping in front of anymore jets that are shooting at you.”

“As long as they aren’t aimed at my friends I won’t.” Norah responded cheekily.

“Norah!” Cheri admonished unbelievably.

Cho shared a look of understanding with Cheri and then turned to Norah once again, “I’d prefer it Norah, if you refrained from doing that again. Please. I don’t think Tony could take another situation like that.” She told her. Giving a sigh, Norah nodded her head and saluted Cho.

“I promise to do my best to not to do so again, if at all possible.” She said dully.

Looking at Norah, Cho shook her head and figured that was the closest she was going to get to Norah promising to not put herself in danger again. After all, Norah was like family to the Avengers and would sacrifice herself if it meant that they lived, as the whole fight against Ultron proved. “Ready to see what the verdict is?” Cho asked.

Nodded, Norah hopped up onto the medical bed and looked at Cho expectantly. “Ready when you are Doc.” She said, a wide and hopeful grin on her face.

So with that said Cho went through the motions of looking over each wound that Norah had acquired from the fight against Ultron in Sokovia; the two gunshot wounds to her side, the one in her thigh, the one that was close to her neck area and then the most dangerous one that she had sustained which had been the one that went directly through her lung. It was the lung injury that had given the doctors the most problems during surgery and after, which is one of the reasons that they had put her into a medically induced a coma so that it could give her some time to heal without being in immense amounts of pain every time she breathed. To tell the truth Cho had been surprised that Norah had survived her injuries long enough for the medical team onboard of the Hellicarrier to get to work on her and fix her up to the best of their ability, if not for Norah’s pure stubbornness and the quick work of the medical team Cho had no doubt that Norah would not be standing there with them today.

“So?” Norah asked once Cho had finished using the handheld scan on her body to check on her internal damage that the gunshot wounds had caused her. “Please, please, please, please tell me I am free to use my powers like usual. It’s killing me to not use them.” She said to her dramatically, making a puppy dog face at her and everything.

Not being able to use your powers for almost a month was hell on a Mutant, especially for a Mutant like Norah who has used her powers every single day since she had found out about them. Not being able to Blink from one place to another or go into the training room to work out and use her molecular combustion power was rubbing Norah’s skin the wrong way and made her feel…unnatural. There were times, small instances in the past when Norah had wished and hoped to be normal but those were the times when she had difficulty controlling her more volatile power. She hasn’t thought like that in many years and now that she’s experienced being ‘normal’ for the first time since she was six or seven years old, well Norah has to say that she wasn’t all that fond of it and would rather be able to use her powers whenever she wanted rather than not.

“Well Norah you are healing up quite nicely, far better than I expected when I had first seen your injuries.” Cho told her honestly as she took her gloves off and tapped on the tablet she was using and pulling up the scans that she had taken of Norah’s injuries. “I think for the most part you are healed up,” she said which gained a ‘Yes!’ from Norah, but Cho ignored that and continued with what she had been saying. “Notice, I said the most part. I know you really want to use your powers again but I’m asking you to give it at least one more week before doing so.” She said to her apologetically.

That was the biggest disappointment Norah has felt in a long while, “Oh come on, really?!” she exclaimed, none too happy with what Cho was saying. “A week? I’ve got to wait another week, really? I’ve barely been able to contain my impatience over the last what, three or four weeks, I can’t take another week.” She complained with slumped shoulders, a look of defeat on her face. “What difference will a week make?”

Seeing the utter agony and dread on her younger sister’s face Niki couldn’t help but snicker a bit, she couldn’t even begin to comprehend what her sister was going through with not being able to use her powers for such a long time but seeing her act like a petulant five year old child who was told no to having a cookie before dinner was hilarious. It was nice to see her sister still had her playful tendencies, especially after the serious talk that they had the day before.

“A week can make all the difference Eleanorah.” Cheri said to her daughter. “So please, for your mother’s sake. Can you try and last one more week without using your powers so we are for certain that you are all healed up.” She pleaded with her.

Cho nodded her agreement, “Yes, it would be best to wait another week Norah. I’m sorry, I know that’s not exactly what you wanted to hear but it would be best.” She stated simply, giving a small shrug of her shoulders.

Pouting, Norah crossed her arms and gave a great big sigh and conceded to what Cho and her mother were asking of her. “Fine, one more week and that’s it. I’m not waiting any longer than that.”

Giving a laugh Cho nodded her agreement to what Norah was saying, “All right, I promise one more week and you’ll be free to do as you did before you were injured.” She said affirmed to her.

“I’ll hold you to that.” Norah uttered unhappily. “I’d expect nothing less from you Norah.” Cho replied in amusement.

While Norah was not completely free to do as she wanted, she was definitely close to being able to use her powers again and that was something she was more than excited about doing once again. That also meant that she would be having to take up training once again with Natasha and the others, but it also meant that she could train with Pietro and she could only imagine how interesting it would be with his speed and her ability to Blink from place to place.

The possibilities.


End file.
